04.16.20 Mustard Yellow!

Yellow blazes shoot out of the pastures this time of year. Growing faster than the grass, Field Mustard, Brassica rapa, makes a stunning display. The other family name is Cruciferae or “cross-bearing,” appropriate to this time of year and explained by close examination of the four-petalled, cross-shaped flowers. This is a huge family of flowering plants and one that is critical to our diets. Brassica rapa varieties give us turnips, cabbage, broccoli raab, canola oil, and of course, mustard seeds for that favorite yellow condiment. It is not a new world native, having been introduced inadvertently by European colonists.

From J. E. Smith, English Botany, or Coloured Figures of British Plants, 1863.