Article

More than one hundred rocket (Eruca vesicaria) accessions collected from as many geographic localities have been characterised llsing vegetati ve, fl ower, fruit and seed characters. The species shows an ampie reticulate variation which often makes it diflicult to ascribe specimens to a particular subspecies. For flowering or early fruiting plants, the best discriminant character to distinguish subsps vesicaria and saliva is the persistence of the sepals ( 10-1 2 persistent calyces below the last open flower in subsp. vesicaria compared to 3-5 in subsp. sativa). In dry infructescences, pedicels of the basa i fruits of each branch are longer in vesicaria (9-15 mm) than in sativa (3 -6 mm). Subsp. pinnalifida also shows long pedice ls but it ean be easil y distinguished by its small seed size ( I-I.I mm versus. > 1.3 in ali other subspecies). Fruit morphometry did not support a clear distinction for populations usually ascribed to subsp. longirostris in South Spain and Morocco. On the other hand, some naturalised subsp. sativa populations of cliltivated origin can be differentiated by their large fruits and seeds