Eruca
Genus of flowering plants
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eruca is a genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae, native to the Mediterranean region, western and Central Asia, and China.[1] It includes the leaf vegetable known as rocket or arugula.
| Eruca | |
|---|---|
| |
| Eruca vesicaria | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Brassicales |
| Family: | Brassicaceae |
| Genus: | Eruca Mill. |
| Species | |
|
See text | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Description
The species can be either annual or biennial, growing to 20–100 cm tall. The leaves are deeply pinnately lobed with four to ten small lateral lobes and a large terminal lobe. The flowers are 2–4 cm diameter, arranged in a corymb, with the typical 4-petal, 4-sepal Brassicaceae flower structure; the petals are creamy white with purple veins, and the stamens yellow. The fruit is a siliqua (pod) 12–25 mm long with an apical beak, and containing several seeds.[2][3][4]
Species
The number of species is disputed, with some authorities only accepting a single species, while others accept up to six species.[5][6] Plants of the World Online accepts six species:[1]
- Eruca aurea Batt.
- Eruca foleyi (Batt.) Lorite, Perfectti, J.M.Gómez, Gonz.-Megías & Abdelaziz
- Eruca longirostris Uechtr.
- Eruca pinnatifida (Desf.) Pomel (syn. E. sativa subsp. pinnatifida (Desf.) Batt.; E. vesicaria subsp. pinnatifida (Desf.) Emberger & Maire)
- Eruca sativa Mill. (syn. E. vesicaria subsp. sativa (Mill.) Thell.)
- Eruca vesicaria (L.) Cav.
When treated as a monospecific genus, all are included within E. vesicaria.[7][8]
