Introduced. Annual and winter annual. Propagates by seed. Time of bloom: April to July. Seed-time: Late May to August. Range: New Brunswick and Ontario to Michigan, southward to

Virginia and the Middle Western States; also on the Pacific

Coast. Habitat: Grain and clover fields, meadows, roadsides, and waste places.

A weed whose range is rapidly widening, mostly by the agencies of impure grass and clover seed. Stem ten to eighteen inches tall, erect, branching at the top, gray-green with fine, downy hair. Root-leaves tufted, spatulate, two to four inches long, tapering to petioles; stem-leaves arrow-shaped, slightly toothed, sessile and clasping the stem with an auricled base; all leaves softly downy. Flowers white, the petals so small as to be hardly noticeable. Silicles ovate, rough, concave above, convex below, winged and notched at the tip, the style protruding from the notch. Seeds reddish yellow, very pungent to the taste.

Means Of Control

Infested grain fields and meadows should be sprayed with Iron sulfate or Copper sulfate before the first flowers mature. Stubbles should be cultivated after harvest in order to destroy autumn seedlings.