Like it ’s tone , the story of the garlic Indian mustard plant is one of both pleasant spiciness and unpalatable bitterness . In its native region , it ’s an important barbarian herb , medicine , and food harvest . In North America , however , the write up is unlike . It has become an trespassing weed that set a threat to aboriginal plants and insect . Cattle James Leonard Farmer spend batch of money essay to exterminate it .
Description
Garlic Mustard is a biennial herbaceous plant aboriginal to :
In the first year of ontogenesis , plants stay low to the ground create a wrinkly cluster of leaves . In its 2d year , the plant elongates to a maximum height of around 40 inch and produces clusters of white flowers .
The flower , shaped like a cross , gave rise to the name ‘ cruciferous ’ which have-to doe with to the family of vegetables cultivated from the original wild mustard green . In midsummer of the 2d class , the flowers wilt and semen pods mannequin . Thousands of seeds follow out of each pod . They can be used whole as a stand - alone flavoring , or they can be crush and mixed with vinegar to develop the forward-looking yellow sandwich condiment .
It is ego - fertile and outside of its native range an invasive weed . It can choke out aboriginal works organization and establish itself as a static woods understory , flourish in sun or partial shadowiness .
History
Garlic mustard , a member of the wild table mustard family , is the oldest known cultivated crop in Europe , with references that date back to between 4100 - 3750 B.C.E. From this little weed come all of the democratic green veggie today in the Brassicaceae fellowship like kale , broccoli , and wampum .
Ancient Europeans run through the young leaves raw and cooked , used the flowers to add smack to wine , and used the cum as a spiciness . Early writings on the plant claim that it was used as a disinfectant .
When settlers take the plant to the new humans , they issue it as a solid food reference . It chop-chop naturalize in a alien ecosystem where it had no natural predators . Insects and brute in North America will not eat it , and it is even toxicant to some aboriginal butterfly species .
Noxious Weed or Useful Herb
Garlic mustard is both a noxious pot and a useful and flavourful herbaceous plant . In its native scope , it poses no threat and can be cultivate for its singular properties . In the Americas it should not be cultivated due to its tendency to escape cultivation and spread into the natural state where it suppresses aboriginal flora emergence .
One electropositive scene of it being invasive in North America is that if you find it in the wild , do n’t waver to harvest it all . Noxious weed or not , it still lends look to dishes and the semen can be crushed to make the innovative condiment of the same name .
