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 Sahara mustard is native to
the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East. It became notorious during the twentieth century after it
invaded the deserts of the United States and Mexico. Recently it has become an invasive weed of
low deserts including the Sonoran
and Mojave Deserts, as well as the desert valleys such as the Coachella and
Imperial Valleys of southern California.
The plant disperses when rain begins.
When the seed coats are moistened they form a gel and become sticky
and readily adhere to humans, animals, and objects. Seeds then germinate
along roadsides and arid desert lands, primarily in disturbed habitats. The plant produces 750 to 9000 seeds which
remain viable for several years in soil,
This
mustard was first recognized as an invaded species in 1927 but later in the
1970s and early 1980s it appeared across the desert region of
California. Control over the
widespread area where it occurs is challenging and may require volunteer hand
labor to remove it. Herbicides are
also considered and may be effective if applied to plants at the correct
time. This mustard is also closely
related to many agricultural crop plants, which would make biological control
very difficult, as it would require finding a very specific natural enemy.
REFERENCES:
Barows, C. W., E. B. Allen, M. L. Brooks & M. F. Allen. 2009.
Effects of an invasive plant on a desert sand dune landscape: Controlling Sahara mustard: evaluation of
herbicide and mechanical treatments (California). Ecological Restoration 24:
277-278.
Brooks, M. L., J. V. Draper & M. R.
Trader. 2006. Brassica tournefortii: Phenology, Interactions
and Management of an Invasive Mustard.
Robin Marushia, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California,
Riverside.
Chauhan, B. S. 2020. Effect of emergence time on growth and
fecundity of Rapistrum rugosum
and Brassica tournefortii in
the northern region of Australia. Scientific Reports. 10: 15979.
Marushia, R. G., M. W. Cadotte & J. S. Holt. 2010.
Phenology as a basis for management of exotic annual plants in desert
invasions. Journal of Applied
Ecology 47: 1290-1299.
Melville, Kim T.; Sabrina F. Davies, Charles S. Bond,
Steven M. Smith, Gavin R. Flematti
& Mark T. Waters.
(December 2020). Divergent
receptor proteins confer responses to different karrikins in two ephemeral
weeds. Nature Communications. 11 (1): 1264.
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