Max Wright wrote in message ...
In message , datsy
writes


...
If I get it wrong when using my field guide to identify wild rocket
(actually, in my Collins FG, 'Hedge mustard' is what they call
Sisymbrium officinale, which in turn is what the Internet seems to
call 'wild rocket'), eating the wrong close relative won't do me any
harm, will it?

Just as a matter of interest, why is "wild rocket" in the supermarket called
"wild rocket" in the first place??



According to the Organic Gardening Catalogue, their wild rocket is
Diplotaxis tenuifolia, not Sisymbrium officinale (but it's also known as
Sisymbrium tenuifolium, according to www.scs.leeds.ac.uk - just Google
"diplotaxis"). It's a perennial and "doubtfully native" in Britain,
rated a noxious/invasive weed in various parts of Australia. I've had
it in my garden for about 3 years.

There's also another wild rocket, Diplotaxis erucoides; this one is an
annual and (according to the same source) a serious weed in southern
Europe.

I believe the normal cultivated annual or "salad" rockets are Erucas -
allegedly introduced to Britain by the Romans. So perhaps the annual
wild rocket's name means "not actually a rocket but rather like one".

Thanks for that. Collins lists D. tenuifolia as "Perennial wall
rocket". Another species, D. muralis or Annual wall rocket appears in
the same paragraph. No sign of D. erucoides under that name. Back to
the Internet!

MIke.