page_title: Rapeseed
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Rapeseed / Description
caption_attribution_description: Canola growing in the Merriwa to Denman region in crop and by roadside. Canola growing in the Merriwa to Denman region in crop and by roadside. Flowerheads infested with aphids. Introduced, cool-season, annual or biennial herb to 1.5 m tall, usually with a strong taproot. Stems are erect and scarcely branched. Leaves are grey-green. Lower leaves are stalked, lyrate-pinnatifid and 5–20 cm long; nerves sparingly bristly. Upper leaves are stem-clasping, sessile and oblong-lanceolate. Flowerheads are racemes. Flowers are bright yellow, with 4 petals and 6 stamens. Fruit are siliquas, obliquely erect, 5–10 cm long, obscurely 4-angled, with a 5–20 mm long, tapering beak. Flowering is from winter to spring.
context_page_description: Rapeseed is a bright-yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae, cultivated mainly for its oil-rich seed, which naturally contains appreciable amounts of toxic erucic acid. Canola are a group of rapeseed cultivars which were bred to have very low levels of erucic acid and are especially prized for use for human and animal food. Rapeseed is the third-largest source of vegetable oil and second-largest source of protein meal in the world.
context_section_description: Brassica napus grows to 100 cm (39 in) in height with hairless, fleshy, pinnatifid and glaucous lower leaves which are stalked whereas the upper leaves have no petioles. Brassica napus can be distinguished from Brassica nigra by the upper leaves which do not clasp the stem, and from Brassica rapa by its smaller petals which are less than 13 mm (0.51 in) across.
  Rapeseed flowers are yellow and about 17 mm (0.67 in) across. They are radial and consist of four petals in a typical cross-form, alternating with four sepals. They have indeterminate racemose flowering starting at the lowest bud and growing upward in the following days. The flowers have two lateral stamens with short filaments, and four median stamens with longer filaments whose anthers split away from the flower's center upon flowering.
  The rapeseed pods are green and elongated siliquae during development that eventually ripen to brown. They grow on pedicels 1 to 3 cm long, and can range from 5 to 10 cm in length. Each pod has two compartments separated by a inner central wall within which a row of seeds develop. The seeds are round and have a diameter of 1.5 to 3mm. They have a reticulate surface texture, and are black and hard at maturity.
caption: Rapeseed pod with seeds inside
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