Annual rough-haired herbs, the large reddish purple tap root edible. Lowermost leaves lyrate becoming smaller and less deeply divided above. Flowers white to purple, petals 1.5-2.5 cm long, darkly veined; autumn to spring. Fruit 2-7 cm long, hardly constricted between the seeds, long-beaked.

Occasionally naturalised and weedy.

Swollen root used as edible radish in salads. Commercial cultivars include: 'Black Spanish', 'Champion', 'Fireball', 'French Breakfast', 'Gentle Giant' and 'Mars'.

 

The garden weed R. raphanistrum L., Wild Radish, possibly from the Mediterranean, differs in having the siliqua distinctly constricted between the seeds and the roots large but not fleshy.

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Brassicaceae. In: Spencer, R.. 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.