Sisymbrium heteromallum C. A. Mey.

Small flowers, elongated fruits and leaves with large terminal lobes and smaller much narrower lateral lobes are distinctive characters.

Annual or biennial, 30-90 cm tall, erect, branched above,± hispid below with simple ciliate hairs, sometimes subglabrous. Leaves resembling closely with the previous species but terminal lobe much longer and broader than the lateral, 2-3 pairs of lobes, shortly toothed, stalked. Racemes 30-45-flowered, up to 25 cm long in fruit; young fruits conspicuously overtopping the flowers. Flowers very small, c. 3 mm across, pale yellow; pedicels 7-15 mm long in fruit, not thickened, spreading. Sepals 3-4 mm long. Petals 4-5 mm long, 1-1.5 mm broad. Stamens c. 3: 4 mm long; anthers c. 1 mm long. Siliquae linear-subcylindrical, 60-80 mm long, 1 mm broad, glabrous; valves covex, 3-veined; style inconspicuous, c. 0.5 mm long with depressed capitate stigma; seeds many, c. 1 mm long, oblong-ellipsoid, finely granulated.

Herbs annual, (20-)35-100(-150) cm tall. Stems erect, branched above, sparsely to densely pubescent at least near base, usually glabrous above. Basal leaves rosulate, not fleshy; petiole 1-3(-5) cm; leaf blade broadly oblanceolate to oblong-oblanceolate in outline, lyrate- or runcinate-pinnatipartite, 3-7(-10) × (0.5-)1.5-4 cm; lateral lobes 2-5 on each side of midvein, much smaller than terminal one, oblong or lanceolate, dentate; terminal lobe lanceolate, dentate. Uppermost cauline leaves narrowly lanceolate or linear, often not lobed, entire or dentate. Fruiting pedicels reflexed or subdivaricate, slender and nearly filiform, much narrower than fruit, (0.5-)0.7-1.5 cm. Sepals narrowly oblong, ascending, 2.5-3.5(-4) × 0.7-1 mm. Petals pale yellow, narrowly spatulate, 3-5 × (0.5-)0.7-1.2(-1.5) mm; claw shorter than sepals. Filaments yellowish, erect, 2.5-3.5 mm; anthers oblong, 0.5-0.6 mm. Ovules (60-)90-160 per ovary. Fruit narrowly linear, slender, terete, (5-)6-9.5(-11) cm × 0.8-1.2 mm; valves glabrous, torulose; style cylindric, 0.5-2(-3.5) mm; stigma 2-lobed; septum not thickened. Seeds oblong, 0.8-1.1 × 0.4-0.5 mm. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Jun-Sep.

C. Asia, Himalaya (Nepal), Tibet, Siberia, Mongolia, China.

Distribution: C. Asia, Himalayas and Pakistan.

Gansu, Hebei, Jiangsu, Jilin, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [India, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia].

2700-3600 m

Fl. Per. April-June.

Rocky slopes, roadsides, forests, grassy areas, river banks, alpine meadows, rocky outcrops; 900-4500 m.

Sisymbrium dahuricum Turczaninow ex Fournier; S. heteromallum var. dahuricum (Turczaninow ex Fournier) Glehn ex Maximowicz; S. heteromallum var. sinense O. E. Schulz.