34. Raphanus L. (radish)

Plants annual or biennial, terrestrial, usually sparsely pubescent with unbranched hairs. Stems erect or ascending, usually branched. Leaves alternate and basal, nearly all petiolate, the upper leaves progressively reduced, the bases not clasping the stem, pinnately lobed or divided, the 5–15 lobes progressively larger toward the leaf tip, the margins otherwise toothed or lobed. Inflorescences panicles, the lower branches subtended by reduced leaves, the flowers bractless. Sepals erect or ascending, narrowly oblong to oblanceolate or nearly linear. Petals unlobed, purple, pink, white, or light yellow, with dark purple veins. Stigma not lobed. Fruits more than 5 times as long as wide or rarely less, ascending, straight or nearly so, circular in cross-section, often corky in texture, segmented into apical and basal portions, the basal portion relatively short, seedless, and stalklike, the apical portion 4 or more times as long as the basal portion, tapering in the apical 1/4–1/2 to a distinct, conical, seedless beak in addition to the style, indehiscent or eventually breaking between the seeds into 1-seeded segments. Seeds in 1 row in each locule, 2.0–3.5 mm long, oblong to nearly circular in outline, the surface with a netlike or honeycomb-like pattern of ridges and pits, reddish brown. Three species, Europe, Asia, Africa, introduced nearly worldwide.

The fruits of Raphanus are unusual in that the seeds are effectively in a single vertical rank and are immersed in corky tissue. Thus, there are no locules in the mature fruit. The reduced basal segment usually contains vestiges of the replum.