Diplotaxis muralis Annual Wall-rocket

An annual or biennial, yellow-flowered crucifer which grows in open areas along pavements, roads, railways and other waste places. It was first recorded in Britain in Kent in 1778 where it appears to arrived in imported seed from a ship that had become wrecked on the Kent coast. Since then it has expanded its range in the southeast of England and further westwards to Wales and northwards to Scotland. It is most common as a coastal plant in Wales and absent from the uplands of mid Wales. It is locally frequent along the coast in West Glamorgan with persistent poulations near the Singleton Campus in Swansea and in numerous places in the vicinity of Aberavon Beach prominade in Neath Port Talbot. It is a smaller, more procumbent plant than Perennial Wall-rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) and with smaller flowers, but it shares with that species the characteristic smell of burnt rubber when the foliage is crushed, somewhat like that of rocket salad. Most parts of the plant contain glucosinolates and phenolic compounds, all of which have interesting biological activities as antibacterial and anti-inflamatory agents and also as antioxidants.

Neophyte