Latin name for Eruca sativa, possibly derived from the Latin uro—I burn, referring to the burning taste of the seeds.
Annual herb with an unpleasant smell. Flowers with sepals erect with the inner pair saccate; stamens 6 with median nectar glands. Fruit a dehiscent siliqua with flattened valves having a single prominent midvein; seeds in 2 rows.
Generally grown in herb gardens as Eruca vesicaria (L.) Cav. subsp. sativa (Mill.) Thell. Salad Rocket or Purplevein Rocket, from the Mediterranean region which is occasionally cultivated-the leaves are used in salads; also once grown as a source of animal fodder and for its seed oils, it flowers from summer to autumn. [E. sativa Mill.]
Naturalised in the wild.
Fruit with a long, flat terminal segment; seeds in 2 rows.
6 species from the Mediterranean (1 species naturalised in Australia).
Source: (1997). Brassicaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
