05/10/2008 Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, Washington
02/08/2007 Mouth of the Elwha River, Port Angeles, Washington
02/08/2007 Mouth of the Elwha River, Port Angeles, Washington
02/08/2007 Mouth of the Elwha River, Port Angeles, Washington
02/26/2016 Ediz Hook, Port Angeles, Washington
01/30/2007 Mouth of the Elwha River, Port Angeles, Washington
02/08/2007 Mouth of the Elwha River, Port Angeles, Washington
05/16/2009 Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, Washington
05/16/2009 Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, Washington
A non-native annual, Field Mustard, also called Rape from the Latin for turnip, Brassica rapa (or Brassica campestris), grows all along the northwest coast of the United States and Canada, frequenting low-elevation disturbed sites. (Varieties grow all over the United States.)
I’ve seen plants blooming in late January but they are much larger and more exuberant blooming in May.
Mustards are members of the family Brassicaceae (Cruciferae). The usually symmetrical, four-petaled flowers are diagnostic of the family. The lower leaves of Field Mustard are long and somewhat lyre-shaped, while upper leaves wrap around the stem at their bases. Mustard flowers attract many pollinators (slides 8 and 9).
Pojar and Mackinnon write, in Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, that Field Mustard was cooked and eaten by northwest tribes, including the Stl’atl’imx. Cultivated plants such as turnip, rapes, mustards and Chinese cabbages all belong to the same species, which was domesticated as far back as 1500.