Eruca Mill., Gard. Dict. ed. 8. 1754. Adans., Fam. 2:418.1763; Benth. & Hook. f., l.c. 84; Boiss., l.c. 395; Hook. f., l.c. 158; Sinskaya in Kom., l.c. 469; Hedge in Davis, l.c. 269; in Rech. f., l.c. 42.
Annual or perennial herbs, erect, branched, hispid with simple hairs, sometimes glabrous. Leaves pinnatifid, lower stalked, upper subsessile or sessile. Racemes lax, elongating in fruit. Flowers large, usually dull yellowish with brown or violet veined petals, shortly pedicelled. Sepals erect, oblong, obtuse, subequal, inner pair subsaccate at the base. Petals about twice as long as the sepals, obovate, long clawed. Stamen filament linear; anthers oblong, subobtuse. Nectar glands minute, lateral depressed-prismatic, middle subglobose or subob¬long. Ovary cylindrical, 13-50 ovuled; beak prominent, conical with a distinct bilobed stigma. Siliquae oblong or sub-ellipsoid, 1-3 cm long, tetragonal, ± turgid with a flat, conical, compressed seedless beak; valves with a prominent mid-vein; septum hyaline, not veined; seeds biseriate, subglobose or ovoid, 1-2.5 mm long, brown; cotyledons conduplicate.
Few species chiefly of the Mediterranean region; only 1 species recorded from Pakistan.
