Eruca vesicaria subsp. sativa

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Arugula is a naturalized annual found in the California Central Valley, northern California, southern coastal ranges, and desert regions in disturbed areas and cultivated fields at elevations below 1,200 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces bright yellow flowers with dark brown to purple veins, each petal 1.5 to 2 centimeters wide. Growing 2 to 8 meters tall with simple or absent hairs, it has an upright habit with variably lobed leaves. Its basal leaves are widely oblanceolate, deeply pinnately lobed with 3 to 9 pairs of lateral lobes, ranging from 5 to 20 centimeters long. The fruit develops as a linear silique 1.5 to 3.5 centimeters long, containing 10 to 50 orange to brown seeds arranged in two rows.

Habitat: Disturbed areas, cultivated fields

Bloom period: May-Sep

Elevation: < 1200 m

Bioregions: CaR, GV, SCoR, DSon

California counties: San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, Napa, San Diego, San Bernardino, Imperial, Monterey, Kern, Butte, Kings, Fresno, Sonoma, San Mateo, Marin, Merced, Siskiyou, Yolo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.