Berteroa incana plant with flowers and fruit. commons.wikimedia.org (Accessed 12/2014).

Berteroa incana is an annual to short-lived perennial herb, gray-green, stiff, erect, to 70 cm tall, branched above, stems downy. 

Leaves alternate, 2-5 cm long, narrow, widest above middle (oblanceolate), margin smooth, gray-green, ca 3 cm. 

Berteroa incana flowers. Modified from MissouriPlants.com. discoverlife.org (Accessed 10/2017).

Flowers white, 3 mm wide, petals 4, deeply 2-lobed, narrowed to base, flowers at top of elongating crowded racemes, blooming June-Sept. 

Fruit dry, pods elliptic-rounded, downy, beaked at tip, 0.5-0.8 cm long, 0.3-0.4 cm wide; round; seeds 3-6 per side; winter plant with translucent fruit septa remaining (Levine 1995). 

Wetland status: UPL. 

Frequency in NYC: Very infrequent. 

Origin: Europe. 

Habitat: Open, dry upland areas, roadsides, fill.