Descurainia sophia (Flixweed) - photos and description
Patch of many plants.
General: A tall, much branched annual with greyish-green foliage. Stems densely pubescent.
Flowers: Flowers yellow with four petals, grow in dense panicles at stem tips, we measured a flower at 3 mm diameter.
Fruit: Pods are linear, ascending, and make a wide angle with the stem; we measured a pod at 18 mm long, 1 mm wide.
Leaves: Leaves alternate, twice divided into narrow lobes. Leaf highlighted in photo above was 3 cm long. Leaves densely pubescent.
Height: Height in Flora of Alberta is listed to 100 cm, we measured plants to 93 cm tall.
Habitat: Fields, waste places, prairie.
Abundance: Common.
Origin: Introduced.
Similar species: This plant can be distinguished from Descurainia incana (synonym D. richardsonii) by examining the pods. The pods are 15 to 30 mm long in D. sophia, while they are 5 to 10 mm long in D. incana (Weeds of Canada).
When and where photographed: These photos were taken June 26th, prairie pasture, parklands, about 50 km east of Regina, SK.