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Brassicaceae family

Yellow Mustard Guillenia flavescens

Native
Early-season nectar — Flowers in a late-winter / early-spring window when few other plants in our catalog bloom — valuable early forage for pollinators (relative to our catalog's bloom coverage).

Yellow Mustard is an annual wildflower native to the lower 48 states. It blooms Mar – Jun.

More about this plant

Streptanthus flavescens, synonyms including Guillenia flavescens, is a species of mustard plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is one of several species known by the common name yellow mustard, though the plant most widely known as yellow mustard is probably Sinapis alba. S. flavescens is a thin-stemmed annual herb growing large, lobed or toothed leaves up to 22 centimeters long around its base, and smaller, less toothed leaves along its gray-pink to brown stem. At intervals along the upper stem appear cream, yellowish, or very pale purple flowers, each somewhat cuboid in shape and about a centimeter long. The tips of the petals around the mouth are curled, flared, or claw-like. The fruit is a thin silique up to 9 centimeters long. This species is endemic to California, where it grows in the valleys and mountains surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 11 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Annual
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
The garden year bloom → fruit → fall colour
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Bloom
Bloom (the flower's colour)
Bloom · Mar – Jun — 66 obs · Herbarium specimens — Park et al. 2023 (CC BY 4.0)
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts Documented caterpillar host
Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (10) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[06] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[08] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[10] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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