Appearance
This plant comes from Eurasia, and is a common weed throughout much of North America and its home."Thlaspi arvense" is a foetid, hairless annual plant, growing up to 60 cm tall, with upright branches. The stem leaves are arrow-shaped, narrow and toothed. It blooms between May and July, with racemes or spikes of small white flowers that have 4 sepals and 4 longer petals. Later it has round, flat, winged pods with a deep apical notch,:141 measuring 1 cm across. They contain small brown-black seeds.
Distribution
It is native to temperate regions of Eurasia, but is a naturalized introduced species throughout temperate North America and therefore has a circumpolar distribution. In the British Isles it is regarded as an archaeophyte.In population collections of wild pennycress, it was found in the northern parts of the United States. Pennycress habitats include cropland, fallow fields, areas along roadsides and railroads, gardens plots, weedy meadows, and waste areas. This plant prefers disturbed areas, and its capacity to invade higher quality natural habitats is low.
Food
The field pennycress has a bitter taste; it is usually parboiled to remove the bitter taste. This is mostly used in salads, sometimes in sandwich spreads. It is said to have a distinctive flavour.References:
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