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Black Mustard
(Brassica nigra)
This is NOT a native plant. It is naturalized, originally from Europe. Its relatives are garden vegetables like cabbage and brocolli. You can cook and eat the young unopened flower buds and the very young leaves. The ground up seeds are used to make mustard sauce and you will see the whole seeds floating around in jars of pickles sometimes.
Songbirds really like the seeds!
For an excellent drawing of the plant that shows the seed pod, leaf shapes, flowers and everything go to the Brassica nigra illustration from Kohler's Medicinal Plants.
By late June this is making good sized seed pods.
The following is from Purdue University's information sheet on mustard. It has been slightly edited
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/med-aro/factsheets/MUSTARD.htmlMustard seed and seed products are used extensively in the food industry, in meats, sausages, processed vegetables, and relishes. White mustard is generally used for flavoring, and black and brown mustards are generally used for aroma. Mustard seeds are processed to yield mustard flour, from which table mustard and other condiments are made. Ground mustard, powdered dry mustard, prepared mustard, mustard paste, and whole seeds are commercially available. White, brown, and black mustards are blended to secure the desired flavor and aroma. White mustard seed is used as a spice in cucumber pickling. Prepared English and French mustards are usually made from brown mustard seeds, to which are added capers, white wine, and vinegar. Mustards are used in mayonnaise and other products as emulsion stabilizers, antioxidants, and antifungal agents (11.1-126). In addition to providing seed oil for industry and food products, rape plants (another type of mustard plant) are grown as forage crops for livestock and to produce seed for bird feed.
As a medicinal plant, mustard has traditionally been considered a digestive irritant, rubefacient, and stimulant. Mustard has been used as a folk remedy against arthritis, rheumatism, inflammation, and toothache. The powdered seeds act as a stimulant to gastric mucosa and increase pancreatic secretions. Contact of mustard extract with skin can cause blistering. .... Pharmaceutically, mustards are considered emetics and counterirritants in humans and animals, and are used as carminatives in veterinary practices .
Brassica juncea (L.) Czerniak var. crispifolia L. H. Bailey, curled mustard, var. foliosa L. H. Bailey, broad-leaved mustard, and other Brassica species are commonly used as mustard greens.
Black, brown, and white mustard are generally recognized as safe for human consumption as spices/natural flavorings and as plant extracts.
Study Pointers:
- Flip through a cook book and find mention of mustard.
- "Mustard plaster" used to be a remedy for various ills.....it was smeared on your chest! Look it up and then thank your lucky stars it has gone out of favor.
- Have you ever tried the hot mustard at a Chinese restaurant? It makes your head blow up! It feels great (after you can see again
).
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