Cabbage Family [Brassicaceae] |
status
flower
morph
petals
stem
rarity
(ssp. monensis)
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
A short to medium (to 60cm) maritime biennial. |
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Grows in sandy places by the sea, where it can get buried by wind-blown or spring-tide borne sand. This one on a sandy beach, equally happy amidst sand dunes. |
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Stem leaves few. Basal rosette always present. Leaves dark-green, semi-shiny and pinnate. |
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers yellow, fairly large at 20-25mm across, with 4 petals. |
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Petals about as wide as long, like those of Annual Wall-Rocket (only larger) or of Perennial Wall-Rocket (only slightly smaller). |
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
New flower buds hairy at top, losing some of the hairs as they grow and elongate. |
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
The four sepals in a tubular sheath around the lower part of the flower. Sepals always as long or longer than their stalks. |
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Flower stalks always shorter than the sepals. |
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Four stamens protrude with yellow-pollened anthers. |
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaves dark-green and pinnate with thinnish leaflets. Here there are a set of leaves emerging from the stalk, and the basal rosette below. The stem leaves here are incurled and look much thinner than the basal leaves which are slightly bluntly toothed/lobed. |
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Basal leaves, stalks long and straightish. |
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Lower leaves apt to get buried by wind-blown dry sand on hot days. Leaves have a textured surface looking like they have been sand-blasted. |
9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Stems hairless glaucous-green but darkening and reddening. Young seed pods not yet fully developed. When developed they will be longer, thicker and have a waist just at the junction of the tapered beak. Ripe seed-pods similar to those of the very rare Lundy Cabbagewhich is found only on Lundy Isle. Both beak and pod contain just a single row of seeds (un-like the Wall-rockets which contain 2-rows). |
There are two sub-species of Coincya monensis:
There is another species of Coincya listed in some books ('Wild Flowers of B&I' - Fitton, Fitton & Blamey) treated as a sub-species of Coincya monensis (but not by Prof. Clive Stace) where it is a separate species in it's own right, as shown by the specific epithet wrightii :
Some similarities to : Annual Wall-Rocket (Diplotaxis muralis) (but that has smaller flowers) and to Perennial Wall-Rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) (but that has larger flowers) - amongst many other detailed differences.
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Coincya | monensis | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Brassicaceae |
Coincya (Cabbages) |
Cabbage Family [Brassicaceae] |