Radish, Wild

Information on Wild Radish

Common Name: Wild Radish
Scientific Name: Raphanus raphanistrum ssp. raphanistrum
Irish Name: Meacan raidigh
Family Group: Brassicaceae
Distribution: View Map (Courtesy of the BSBI)
Flowering Period


Click for list of all flowering by month
Wild Radish is not easily confused with other wild plants on this web site.


This is a bristly, upright annual or biennial plant which is found frequently as a weed in fields, and on bare, waste ground.  It's a bushy plant with many branches of hairy stems which bear very pretty white or pale yellow flowers (25-30mm across) in loose heads from April to September.  These 4-petalled flowers have lilac veins and are worth examining with a hand lens.  The sepals are red tinged and also bristly. In some areas the flowers can be purple or even light orange. The lower leaves are pinnately lobed, the upper being less so.  This is an introduced plant and it belongs to the family Brassicaceae.   

I first identified this plant growing at Ballyteigue, Co Wexford in April, 2009 and photographed it at that time.

If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre

Described as 'a relict of cultivation', this plant has been chased out of arable land by herbicides and now is more commonly found on waste ground.  Wild Radish is also known as Jointed Charlock and in some countries, such as Australia, is being termed as an invasive species; it is known to spread rapidly.  However it is much loved by bees especially as it flowers earlier than many of their other sources of pollen.    

Radish, Wild
Radish, Wild
Radish, Wild
Radish, Wild