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Wild cabbage?

WillowBarkWillowBark Posts: 243
in Plants
Hello, is anyone able to help me identify what this plant is? I didn't plant it, and a few others like it popped up in various spots over the garden last year. It looks very much like it must be a member of the brassica family, but I can't quite pin down which one. Was wondering if anyone else here had come across them before and could shed some light on the matter! I don't mind them, they're quite pretty and the bees like them, and they give me somewhere to transplant any caterpillars that invade my purposefully planted brassicas, but I am curious to know exactly what they are. Thanks.








Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Many brassicas are similar, but that looks a lot like Oilseed rape.  Are you in an agricutural area where it's grown ... or could the seeds have come from birdseed?

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Are you near farmland? It looks like oilseed rape.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Snap! @JennyJ :)

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    :) I used to get it popping up when there'd been rape in the field up the road the previous year.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    It's all along the roadside verges and field headlands here in Norfolk ... and it's flowering now. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • WillowBarkWillowBark Posts: 243
    @Dovefromabove and @JennyJ Aha, that's it! I am so used to seeing it in huge swathes of colour that I've never really looked at an individual plant closely enough to take note of its appearance. There are fields not far from me where it's grown each year, so I imagine that is where it came from, although I do also put food out for the birds. I also learnt something else new today, because I'd not realised that oilseed was part of the brassica family. Thanks to you both for helping me get to the bottom of the mystery and teaching me something.
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