Eruca sativum

Eruca is an edible annual plant in the family Brassicaceae used as a leaf vegetable for its fresh peppery flavor. Other common names include garden rocket and eruca. Eruca sativa, which is widely popular as a salad vegetable, is a species of Eruca native to the Mediterranean region, from Morocco and Portugal in the west to Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey in the east.

Eruca sativa grows 20–100 centimetres (8–39 in) in height. The pinnate leaves have four to ten small, deep, lateral lobes and a large terminal lobe. The flowers are 2–4 cm (0.8–1.6 in) in diameter, arranged in a corymb in typical Brassicaceae fashion, with creamy white petals veined in purple, and having yellow stamens; the sepals are shed soon after the flower opens. The fruit is a siliqua (pod) 12–35 millimetres (0.5–1.4 in) long with an apical beak, and containing several seeds (which are edible).