| Western Tansymustard |
| Descurainia pinnata |
| Family: Brassicaceae (Legume) |
| Flowers — color: yellow, size: 1/8", type: 4 petals |
| color | yellow |
| style | 4 petals |
Western Tansymustard has yellow flowers, 1/16–1/8" diameter. Each small flower has four petals, behind them, four shorter sepals. Four yellow stamens grow from the throat and extend above the petals. Later, seed pods develop, with each tiny seed the size if the eye of a needle.
The flower cluster is a corymb—a disk shaped inflorescence. This is a raceme where the older pedicels, flower stems, are longer and wider. The photo shows it in fewer words
Habit:
Western Tansymustard, or Tansy Mustard, or Tansy-mustard, is a columnar annual herb. Specimens growing in shade may be dainty, but it may reach 2' tall in full sun. The leaves are feathery and very complex. The botanical description is multiply pinnate— multiple leaflets, longer at the base and narrower at the tip, like a pine tree. Then each of these leaflets is pinnate, with multi-lobed sub-leaflets.
Tansymustard likes sunny, open, disturbed ground. It must be quite the traveller, because it is often found near railroad tracks in the Midwest and East. This plant has been used by several native cultures for food and medicine.