Scientific name: Raphanus raphanistrum L.
Common name: Wild Radish
Description
Habit: A coarse, hispid annual or biennial with slender roots; has a distinctive radish-like smell when crushed.
Stems: Erect.
Leaves: Alternate, large, shallowly pinnately-lobed to pinnate, with the terminal lobe the largest.
Flowers: White or yellow often with mauve veins; 18-25 mm across, actinomorphic, in racemes; sepals 4, free; petals 4, free; ovary superior.
Fruits: A silique, indehiscent or transversely dehiscent, strongly constricted between the seeds, eventually breaking at the constrictions, with long, persistent, pointed beak.
Habitat: Sandy, muddy or rocky shores, waste ground near the sea.
Distribution: Frequent (Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. maritimus) or very rare and possibly extinct from this region (R. raphanistrum subsp. raphanistrum).
Native status: Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. raphanistrum is not native.
Of conservation interest: No
Subspecies:
Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. raphanistrum
R. raphanistrum subsp. maritimus (Sm.) Thell.
Subsp. maritimus is biennial, with yellow or sometimes white flowers and fruits more than 5 mm wide, growing on sandy shores. Subsp. raphanistrum is annual, with whitish flowers and fruits less than 5 mm wide, growing on sandy or peaty fields.