Corn Rocket

Warm coulours on this meadow on acidic soil. It is not only the evening sun, but also plants growing here. Only a few years ago this meadow was a cultivated field, but now it is for making hay, and some plants typical for cultures are still here. In the background it is Sheep's Sorrel (Rumex acetosella), and in the foreground you can see the yellow flowers of Corn Rocket (Bunias erucago).

Let us look from nearby.

At first sight Corn Rocket looks like any kind of mustard or rapeseed or cress, or, why not, Rocket. A Brassicaceae with many branches and pale yellow flowers. The leaves are edible but there are not many, only a little rosette that disappears when flowering starts.

The flowers leave no room for doubt, yes this is a member of the Brassicacea family.

The fruits are rather special. They are covered with irregular points, and it is hard as a stone.

Pale Madwort

Those tiny yellow flowers grow in a rather arid limestone field.

Pale Madwort (Alyssum alyssoides) is an annual plant and it is one of the first to flower in this habitat. It lives in groups, sometimes there are hundreds of small plants dispersed over a few square meters.

When the flowers open you can see their four petals in the shape of a cross, typical for Brassicaceae.

You are lucky if you find it, it has become rare in Perigord.

The white flowers are not a different species, at the end of flowering the petals turn pale and stick to the developing fruit.