Iberis amara

What to Eat

Edible parts: Seeds - spice

The seeds can be used as a mustard substitute. Pungency develops when cold water is added to ground seed — an enzyme (myrosin) acts on a glycoside (sinigrin) to produce a sulphur compound, a reaction that takes 10–15 minutes. Using hot water or vinegar, or adding salt, inhibits the enzyme and produces a mild, bitter mustard instead.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate and tropical plant.

Argentina, Asia, Australia, China, Dominican Republic, Europe*, Haiti, Himalayas, India, Korea, Luxembourg, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, SE Asia, Slovenia, South America*, Switzerland, Taiwan, West Indies,

How to Identify

A cabbage family herb. It is an annual plant. It grows 10-30 cm high. The leaves are simple. The lower leaves are spoon shaped and the higher ones are sword shaped. There can be some teeth near the tip. The flowers are 1 cm across and white or pale violet.

How to Grow

Easily grown in a good, well-drained ordinary garden soil in a sunny position. Prefers a calcareous soil but tolerates mildly acid soils. Succeeds in poor soils and on dry walls. A very ornamental plant. A fast growing plant, do not grow the plants too close together. The flowers are sweetly scented.

Propagation: Sow seed in spring in situ for summer flowering, or in late summer in situ for a spring flowering. Seed germinates within 3 weeks.

Medicinal Uses

Rocket candytuft is little used in modern herbalism, where it functions as a bitter tonic that aids digestion and relieves wind and bloating. It has traditionally been taken for gout, rheumatism and arthritis. All parts of the plant are antirheumatic and antiscorbutic. The seeds are considered especially useful in treating asthma, bronchitis and dropsy. The plant is gathered in summer and can be dried for later use, while seeds are harvested when fully ripe. A homeopathic remedy is also prepared from the seeds.

Other Uses

None known.

Iberis amara, called wild candytuft, rocket candytuft and bitter candytuft, is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, native to Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. It has been introduced to numerous locations including Algeria, Sweden, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Iraq, Kazakhstan, the Indian Subcontinent, Korea, Far Eastern Russia, New Zealand, Argentina, Ecuador, Hispaniola, the United States, and Canada. It prefers to grow in warm and sunny conditions, in high-calcium soil.

Notes

There are about 30 Iberis species.

More from Brassicaceae

Aethionema cordifolium

Lebanese stonecress

Alliaria petiolata

Hedge Garlic, Jack-by-the-hedge, Garlic Mustard

Alyssum alyssoides - (L.) L.

Pale Madwort

Alyssum constellatum

Alyssum homalocarpum

Alyssum murale