[SallyintNorth]

Flowering now, probably arrived either in a wild flower mix, or from spare seed used in the microgreens business on site. 

Mainly am just interested but also, some surprising things are toxic to horses, so it's as well to know! 

[Fleecewife]

Well, it's a brassica of some sort. I thought it was Charlock but the leaves look wrong from this distance and it's not out up here but could be out in your southern climes . Not rape. It looks more like a garden brassica gone wild. Are the leaves hairy? Need a closer photo really to be sure. So probably a salad that's made a breakaway.

[Anke]

Russian Red kale? Not quite close enough to see the leaf shape.

[SallyintNorth]

Yes, I think a brassica of some kind too.  So there is a possibility of toxicity to equines.  (It's not in a paddock or meadow, it's in the camping field, which we no longer graze.  But it's good to know if we need to react if it appears elsewhere...)

I suspect therefore it's a microgreens plant, so I can possibly get a list from them of what they used last year.  Russian red kale sounds like the sort of thing they may well have grown.

Does this closer up pic help?  (i took higher res pics but resolutiion has to be reduced for uploading to the forum.)

[SallyintNorth]

Now I've looked up charlock, I think Fleecewife may well be right.  (In which case the seedpods would be toxic to livestock but the rest of the plant is okay.)

Updated to say that further reading suggests the leaves are not right for charlock, which is a relief as apparently charlock is (a) very invasive, or can be, and (b) can in fact be toxic to horses in any quantity.

[Anke]

Well it doesn't seem to have set seed yet, so I would just take it out, root and all, and if you are unsure would just burn it... If there are no others nearby, it should just be an individual rogue arrival.

[Fleecewife]

Yes the leaves are too coarse and hairy for Charlock and broccoli or kale.  More like a radish but radish flowers are not yellow. I agree that you might as well pull it - most brassicas are easy to pull out at that size - just to be safe with the horses.
See if the leaf matches anything the micro greens growers recognise.

[SallyintNorth]

This isn't a one-off rogue, there is a ring of them - sown deliberately - in amongst cherry trees in the middle of the camp field, where there is a sitting area with picnic benches for the campers to use.  As we don't graze that field any more, it's more being aware if we get another, which is a rogue, appear elsewhere, and where livestock might get at it.

The chap who sowed them assumed that either they were from wild flower mixes we've used elsewhere on the farm (having checked they didn't include anything toxic to livestock before we bought them), or that they'd be okay because they must be microgreens' seeds, and all those plants are, by definition, edible...  No comprehension that something which is edible for humans, in small quantities at the cotyledon stage, could be toxic to livestock when grown on to an adult plant....   

It can be very stressful at times, living amongst non-farming folk...  (Although actually the chap in question grew up on a farm in Australia...)   The benefits of community living do hugely, for ageing single me, outweigh the frustrations, but there are certainly plenty of frustrations...   

[Anke]

TBH, I am certain that any brassica/kale plant in my goat field would never get past the "micro"stage...

[SallyintNorth]

TBH, I am certain that any brassica/kale plant in my goat field would never get past the "micro"stage...

 


Same for ponies' field, lol.  But we move 'em around...  usually onto grass cropped short by the sheep, mind. 

[Richmond]

Are you sure it's not rape? Looks very similar ....

[SallyintNorth]

Yeah, definitely not rape.  Rape stems and leaves are much paler - grey/green, where this is quite a deep green, and this one has a deep reddish tinge to the stems.  Yes the flowers are similar.

[Glencairn]

I noticed something similar whislt out walking the dog and in my case I think the plant I found is yellow rocketcress. Maybe yours is too.

Edited to add. I think that's the American name, in this country it would be known as common wintercress (Barbarea vulgaris).

[SallyintNorth]

I can see the resemblance but I think not.  Will get some more pics, these plants are now more than 3' tall...