I have been growing Diplotaxis erucoides for six or seven years. It is commonly called wasabi herb, or wall rocket, white rocket, white wallrocket, and it probably has a few other common names. This is not related to true wasabi, but the leaves do have a similar (yet far milder) taste.
This is an edible herb/vegetable with spicy leaves and sweet/spicy edible flowers. Honey bees and other beneficial insects love this plant. It holds up well to frost, it prefers mild temperatures, and it survives heat. For me, this plant generously self seeds through my garden and lawn.
I think this plant is underutilised and should be grown by more people if for no other reason than to feed beneficial insects.
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| Variegated wasabi herb |
Wasabi herb grows and matures fast. They can be annuals and die after flowering, some are short lived perennials that survive (and flower) for a few years before they die. I'm not sure if this difference is genetic but I assume it is at least somewhat influenced by the environment.
They pop up in my vegetable garden, in my lawn, in the chicken run, and I sprinkle seed on bare soil between crops to dig in as a green manure. It matures quite fast. I think that having something that feeds hover flies, parasitoid wasps, and bees on what would have otherwise been fallow soil is a good thing.
This year, out of the many hundreds of self seeded plants that appeared, one had variegated leaves.
I have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of wasabi herb plants and this is the first one that has shown any observable difference to all the rest.
This plant is growing amongst my sweet corn plants. I had planned on weeding it out once the corn was established. After noticing it had variegation I decided to leave it.
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| Variegated wasabi herb - young plant |
I don't know if this variegation is a genetic mutation, or if is caused by the environment in some way. I suspect it is not caused by spray drift as I don't spray things, and this plant had many other self seeded wasabi herb plants surrounding it that do not show any variegation. Perhaps this is a spontaneous mutation, perhaps it is not, I don't know yet.
I plan to try and save seed from this plant to see if they produce variegated offspring.
If you look closely you can see only one side displays variegation. As only one side is variegated I plan to try and save seeds from this side separately if I can.
There is a chance I will leave it too late and the seeds will scatter. If this happens I will try to allow some of the seedlings to grow out and see if any are variegated. Even if none of the seedlings are variegated there is still a chance that future generations may be variegated.
Hopefully this variegation is hereditary and not caused by the environment. If it is, I may eventually be able to stabilise a variegated line of wasabi herb.
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| Variegated Diplotaxis erucoides flowering |
I currently sell seed of wasabi herb through my for sale page. They are a good little plant to grow even if you don't eat them.
If I ever stabilise a variegated line (this will take some time) I will also list them on my for sale page. If I do stabilise a variegated line I will probably post a few updates along the way.
