This Mustard is a Missouri Native

One of Missouri's wonderful spring wildflowers are bright yellow and hardy. Black Mustard, a Eurasian import, grows all over mid-Missouri, especially roadsides and ditches, blooming almost straight from April to November.

A Mustard cousin, Yellow Rocket, also called Winter Cress, also grows all over mid-Missouri, blooming from April to June.

I have tried to move several of these wildflowers to my wildlife garden over the years, with little success so I was thrilled to find this plant at the bottom of one of my sets of garden stairs. Although the yellow flowers are similar, the unusual leaves of Yellow Rocket distinguish this plant from their Black Mustard cousin.

Yellow Rocket isn't a particularly good cut flower but I love the cheerfulness they bring into my spring garden, especially during the dreary, rainy season.

Honeybees like them, too!

Charlotte