What is a wild radish?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

Wild radish is a herbaceous poisonous annual plant that colonizes fields as a weed. It is unpretentious to climate and soil, distributed on almost all continents, most often found in the forest zone of Europe, as well as in meadows, along roads, in wastelands and even on city lawns. It germinates, as a rule, in spring-summer, but it also happens in autumn, at an air temperature of +2-4 degrees C.

Field plant - wild radish

Family Cruciferae are plants that are pollinated by insects. Therefore, many of them smell and have nectar. Our herbaceous plant belongs to this family.

It has a rather high, splayed, straight stem (reaches 50-60 cm in height), covered with stiff hairs. The leaf is lyre-shaped, grows alternately. Root system in the form of a shortened root. The color of the flowers is white, yellowish, rarely purple-white. In a weed, the petals grow in a cross and consist of one pistil and six stamens. The length of the fruit, which ripens in autumn in the form of a pod, dividing into 5-10 segments, can reach 8 cm. The seeds are in pods of an oval reddish color.shade.

Reproduction occurs by seeds - from 150 to 300 per plant. Seeds germinate from a depth of no more than 3-4 cm in the second year. In autumn, they are covered with a dense shell, in which they perfectly tolerate winter, and continue to sprout in spring.

Scientists have proven that a seed can remain viable in the soil for up to 10 years. Wild radish blooms in May-September, bears fruit in July-October. In the phases of germination and the beginning of fruiting, it withstands frosts down to -11°C, but does not overwinter.

The plant does a lot of harm in fertile fields, spreads well in the beds, preventing vegetable crops from germinating.

Properties

Wild radish is endowed with poisonous properties in flowering form, and only when dried does it lose them. Outwardly, it looks like a sowing radish, their taste qualities are also similar, only the consequences of taking wild radish (inflorescences) are deplorable, namely: severe poisoning occurs, the signs of which are bright-colored urine, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, tachycardia, and irreversible kidney changes. In such a case, it is necessary to provide first aid: rinse the stomach and, if deterioration in the cardiovascular system is observed, then be sure to take cardiac medications.

In some countries, for example in England, the stems of this plant are used in food in the form of salads, soups and even seasonings, but after treatment with temperature they are not suitable for this, as they have a bitter taste. Dried, they are used to make seasonings.

Toward autumn, when the pods ripen, the weed becomes dangerous for animals: releasing mustard oil, it can lead to acute damage to the gastrointestinal tract. The plant looks like field mustard. Possible poisoning of rabbits after feeding grass from the fields.

However, the radish has excellent honey properties - it provides a large amount of nectar and pollen for bees. In folk medicine, a decoction of it was used as an expectorant. Useful properties include the content of vitamin C in the aerial part of the weed, and in the seeds - 20-32% fatty oil.

There is a constant fight against this weed, because they did not have time to sow bread and plant potatoes - wild radish is already outgrowing vegetable crops, which annoys gardeners a lot. Its reproduction on cultivated soils can be controlled with the help of herbicides. The active ingredients of these funds can be very diverse.

Finally, we will share with you an interesting and simple dish that can be prepared from this plant.

Wild radish salad recipe

Wash the leaves (200 g), cut, put in a deep plate. Yolks (2 eggs) grind with sour cream (1/2 cup), sugar (1 tablespoon), vinegar (1 tablespoon), sunflower oil (1 tablespoon) and s alt. Beat the whole mass and pour it over the leaves, sprinkle with chopped parsley, dill and onion on top.

Conclusion

Now you know what a wild radish looks like - you can see a photo of it in our article. Do you know how and where it grows and what are its properties?plants.