Wild Radish

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Wild Radishes, like their domesticated counterparts, are introduced edible root vegetables in the mustard family. Less well known is the fact that the flowers are also edible.

Wild radishes are fairly easy to identify. The flowers consist of four thin white, yellow or red petals with pronounced veins. They thrive in sandy soil along coastal areas of the United States. However, they also grow wild throughout the United States.

In some areas they are considered invasive, growing agressively and taking over a landscape. Because they have a long taproot, pulling them is easier after a rainfall.

California has a unique hybrid wild radish problem. In the course of a short one hundred years, a hybridized radish caused its two parent radishes to go extinct.

© 2008 Patricia A. Michaels