Flixweed

[Descurainia sophia (L.) Webb ex Prantl]

Brassicaceae (Mustard Family)

 ▲▼ seedlings

 ▲young plants

mature plants ▲▼

▲▼maure flowering plants

flowering stems with fruit ▲▼

 ▲ flowers

stem with leaves ▲

fruit ▲

 ▲▼ mature plants alongside a wheat field

Flixweed: 

·         introduced annual or winter annual weed that grows 1-3’ tall, with many basal shoots

·         leaves are very finely divided (fernlike)

·         flowers are  yellow and siliques are 1-1.5” long, stand out from the stem on ½” long pedicels

·         common in winter annual crops (especially reduced tillage) and in open pastures/rangeland, more common on sandy soils

·         some reports of it being poisonous, but not widespread

·         native tansy mustard very closely resembles flixweed, but siliques are shorter (0.5-1.0”) and leaves are more ruffly—also can be a weed problem, but flixweed