Nomenclature

Species name :

Brassica rapa subsp. sylvestris  (L.) Lam. & Janchen

Authority :

Carl von Linne, Sweden, (1707 - 1778) ;
Jean Baptiste A. P. de Monnet de Lamarck, France, (1744 - 1829);
Erwin Emil Alfred Janchen, Austria, (1882 - 1970)

Synonyms :
(basionym or principal syn.)

Brassica campestris L.

Full list of synonyms : [Euro+Med] [WFO] [IPNI] [POWO] [Catalogue of Life] [Worldplants.de]

Plant Family :

Brassicaceae  Juss. (= Cruciferae )
(Mustard or Cress Family)

English name(s) :

Wild Turnip, Bargeman's Cabbage

Maltese name(s) :

Liftija

Status for Malta :

Indigenous. Present on the Maltese islands before man

Name Derivation :

Brassica: Old name used for cabbages by Pliny (23 - 79 AD). (Latin origin); 2. Cabbage (Latin).
rapa subsp. sylvestris: (); 2. Turnip (Latin); Sylvestris means wild (Latin).

Remarks :

-

Morphology and structure

Plant description and characters

Life Cycle:

Annual.

Growth Form:

Therophyte (annual plants, herbaceous, die after fruiting/seeding stage)

Habitat:

Weedy places in fields, wasteland and sometimes in traffic islands and gardens.

Frequency:

Common

Localities in Malta:

Common in uncropped fields such as at Buskett, Mtarfa, Mistra and Ghajn Tuffieha to mention a few examples.

Plant Height:

30-60cm.

Flowering Period:

Nov-Apr

Protection in Malta:

Not legally protected till the last update of this website (22/Aug/2025)

Red List 1989:

Not listed in the Red Data Book of the Maltese Islands

Poison:

The plant consist of an erect stem up to 60 cm long with many sub-branching stems which continues to a terminal raceme inflorescence. The stem has some white/grey bristly hair along and the base gets tougher and a reddish-brown colour.

The young and adult leaves have different shapes. The basal adult leaves are stalked, ovoid with an irregularly serrated outline, while the young cauline leaves are smaller, sessile with basal auricles embracing the stem, less serrated outline, and are more elongated.

Flowers are made up of 4 diagonally arranged yellow petals, with 6 tetradynamous stamens (which means 4 central stamens with long filaments, plus 2 lateral and shorter) and a central superior green ovary with a single style and swollen stigma. The flower also has 4 green sepals which are spread out horizontally (perpendicular to stem axis)

The fruit are found in stacks below the infloresences. They are stalked elongated pods called siliqua which become the seed pods of the plant. The siliqua can reach up to 50mm in length, has a pointed beak and its body is slightly bulging with the seeds inside. When the seeds are mature, the siliqua splits up open with a sudden twist of the outside walls and so expels the seeds inside at a further distance. A translucent central wall remains after dispersion. The small seeds are quite spherical in shape, and brown in colour.

Information, uses and other details

Personal observations

Dispersion
Dispersion of seeds is by sudden outwards twisting of the 2 outer walls (valves) forming the siliqua [SM]

Confusion in Maltese names
This plant is usually found growing with another white flowered Crucifer - the Diplotaxis erucoides (White wall rocket) Usually the white species grows more abundantly. The flower and plant morphology are quite similar, except the flower colour. The white species is called "gargir abjad" (white 'gargir'). There is another yellow-flowered crucifer species called "gargir isfar" (yellow 'gargir') which its species name is Diplotaxis tenuifolia. One could easy mistake the Maltese names when seeing the two populations of the yellow B. rapa silvestris mixed with the white D. erucoides growing close together and assume that both are gargir, one is white (gargir abjad) and the other is yellow (gargir isfar). B. rapa subsp silvestris is called "liftija" in Maltese and should not be mixed with "gargir isfar". [SM].



Comparison with Diplotaxis tenuifolia
In Malta there is another Cruciferae plant which is very similar to the Wild Turnip and more abundant. This is called the Perennial Wall Rocket - Diplotaxis tenuifolia). The perennial wall rocket can be easily mistaken for the Wild Turnip at first glance because the yellow flowers and slender fruit pods are very similar. The main differences are the leaves, size of the plant, size of the flower and sepals as indicated in the table below: [SM]

Photo Gallery   (24 Images)

IMAGE: BRSRA-01

Photo of the yellow cross-shaped flowers with petals that may (but not always) overlap slightly each other.

IMAGE: BRSRA-02

Photo of 2 flowers, one of which is at a lateral view showing well the arrangement of the 6 stamens; that is 2 very short and lateral and 4 central and long with the green style and stigma at their centre.

IMAGE: BRSRA-03

Close up photo of a flower cluster at the apex of a flowering stem. PLant is of the raceme type of inflorescence.

IMAGE: BRSRA-04

Photo of a flower cluster with about 3-6 flowers in bloom per cluster.

IMAGE: BRSRA-05

Photo of flower in situ, showing its 4 bright yellow petals, 6 stamens and central pistil. Lower flowers were partially eaten by a herbivore, most probably a snail.

IMAGE: BRSRA-06

Photo of flowers and buds. As indicated on the photo, the diameter of the flower is usually about 13mm.

IMAGE: BRSRA-07

Scanned and annotated image of 2 flowers against a dark background.

IMAGE: BRSRA-08

Scanned and annotated image of 2 flowers against a dark background.

IMAGE: BRSRA-09

Scanned image of buds and their fairly long pedicels.

IMAGE: BRSRA-10

Photo of an uncropped field with many Brassica rapa subsp silvestris plants. The habitat of this plant is rich soils such as fields and traffic islands.

IMAGE: BRSRA-11

Photo of a field in Buskett full of this plant. It is frequently found mixed with a species of the same Mustard family - the white-flowered Diplotaxis Erucoides. Taken at Buskett (Mar 2005).

IMAGE: BRSRA-12

Photo of a fallow field taken over by Brassica rapa subsp. silvestris.

IMAGE: BRSRA-13

Scanned image of the upper sessile leaves and a lower stalked leaf.

IMAGE: BRSRA-14

Photo of a seedling.

IMAGE: BRSRA-15

Photo of several caterpillars of the common white cabbage butterfly on the plants' fruit pods. Brassica rapa is one of the larva favourite host plants.

IMAGE: BRSRA-16

Colour illustration of the plant and its parts taken from Bilder ur Nordens Flora (1901 - 1905), Carl Axel Magnus Lindman.

IMAGE: BRSRA-17

Photo of a young plant (right side) and some seedlings (left side).

IMAGE: BRSRA-18

Photo of a many plants along a lane in the countryside (agricultural area).

IMAGE: BRSRA-19

Photo of young plants, with the characteristic cauline leaf embracing stem.

IMAGE: BRSRA-20

Annotated photo of the leaves, showing stalked adult leaves and sessile young leaves with their base clasping the stem.

IMAGE: BRSRA-21

Photo of the unripe fruit (siliqua) in situ.

IMAGE: BRSRA-22

Scanned image of various siliqua at increasing maturity stages (left to right). Mature fruit pods have fairly long apical beaks, about 4-5mm.

IMAGE: BRSRA-23

Magnified scanned image of 2 mature seed-pods (siliqua) and an empty one with some of its globular seeds further to the left. Note the apical beak (which does not bear seeds) and the translucent central partition to which seeds are attached to.

IMAGE: BRSRA-24

Magnified scanned image of some seeds. They are reddish brown or dark brown in colour, have a spherical shape and about 2-3mm in size.