Yellow rocket-Barbarea vulgaris-Poisonous plants

Yellow rocket

General poisoning notes:

Yellow rocket (Barbarea vulgaris) is a naturalized plant found across much of Canada. This plant poisoned a horse in one unusual case in which the animal ate large quantities of the plant from a wagon that was hauling the weed from a field (Hansen 1930). The symptoms suggested gluocosinolate poisoning, as in Brassica spp.

Description:

Biennials or, rarely, perennials; glabrous throughout or margins ciliate. Stems (1.5-)2-9(-12) dm. Basal leaves: petiole (0.5-)2-10(-17) cm; blade lyrate-pinnatifid, (1-)2-8(-10) cm, lobes 1-3(-5) on each side (rarely early ones undivided), lateral lobes oblong or ovate, 0.3-2(-4) cm × 1-8(-15) mm, sometimes slightly fleshy, margins entire, repand, crenate, or dentate, terminal lobe (ovate or suborbicular), (0.7-)1.5-4.5(-7) cm × (4-)10-30(-50) mm, (surfaces glabrous or margins ciliate). Cauline leaves: blade ovate or suborbicular (undivided), margins usually coarsely dentate, rarely subentire; conspicuously auriculate, auricles ovate or narrowly oblong (to 10 × 5 mm), glabrous. Fruiting pedicels divaricate to ascending or erect, 3-7 mm, terete or subquadrangular, thickened (narrower than fruit). Flowers: sepals 3-4.5(-5) × 1-1.5 mm, lateral pair slightly saccate basally, margins scarious; petals yellow, spatulate or oblanceolate, (5-)6-9(-10) × 1.5-2.5(-3.5) mm, base attenuate, apex rounded; filaments 3-4.5 mm; anthers 0.7-1.2 mm; ovules 18-24(-28) per ovary; gynophore to 0.5 mm. Fruits erect to erect-ascending, rarely appressed to rachis, torulose, terete, somewhat compressed, or 4-angled, (0.7-)1.5-3 cm × 1.2-2 mm; style slender, (1-)1.5-3(-3.5) mm. Seeds dark brown, plump, broadly ovoid to oblong or subglobose, 1.2-1.5 × 1-1.2 mm. 2n = 16.

Nomenclature:

Scientific Name: Barbarea vulgaris R. Br.

Vernacular name(s): yellow rocket, cress, cressy-greens Cress, yellow-rocket, cressy-greens.

Synonyms: Erysimum barbarea Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 660. 1753; Barbarea arcuata (Opiz ex C. Presl) Reichenbach; B. vulgaris var. arcuata (Opiz ex C. Presl) Fries; E. arcuatum Opiz ex C. Presl

Scientific family name: Cruciferae

Vernacular family name: mustard

Geographic Information:

Alberta, British Columbia, Labrador, Manitoba, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon Territory.

Toxic parts:

Stems, leaves.

Animals/Human Poisoning:

Note: When an animal is listed without additional information, the literature (as of 1993) contained no detailed explanation.

Horses