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''Thlaspi arvense'', known by the common name field pennycress, is a
flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
in the cabbage family
Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leav ...
. It is native to Eurasia, and is a common weed throughout much of North America and its home.


Description

''Thlaspi arvense'' is a foetid, hairless
annual plant An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies. The length of growing seasons and period in which they take place vary according to geographical l ...
, growing up to tall, with upright branches. The stem leaves are arrow-shaped, narrow and toothed. It blooms between May and July, with
raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...
s or spikes of small white flowers that have 4 sepals and 4 longer petals. Later it has round, flat, winged pods with a deep apical notch, measuring across. They contain small brown-black seeds. The common name 'pennycress' is derived from the shape of the seeds looking like an old English
penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is ...
. Other English common names are: stinkweed, bastard cress, fanweed, field pennycress, frenchweed and mithridate mustard. Pennycress is an annual, overwintering herb with an unpleasant odor when its leaves are squeezed. It grows up to 40 to 80 cm depending on environmental conditions. White, lavender or pink flowers with four petals develop between five and eight seeds per plant. Numbers of
chromosomes A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...
is 2x. Pennycress, has flat and circular notched pods. Its seeds have a high oil content and the species has gained interest as a potential feedstock for biofuel production.


Morphology

Pennycress is planted and germinates in the fall and overwinters as a small rosette. The central stem and upper side stems terminate in erect racemes of small white flowers. Flowers are self-pollinated and produce a penny sized, heart-shaped, flat seed pod with up to 14 seeds. Each dark brown seed is oval-shaped and slightly larger than a camelina seed (''
Camelina sativa ''Camelina sativa'' is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae and is usually known in English as camelina, gold-of-pleasure, or false flax, also occasionally wild flax, linseed dodder, German sesame, and Siberian oilseed. It is native to E ...
''). Pennycress grows as a winter annual across much of the Midwestern US and the world.


Distribution

The field pennycress is native to the temperate regions of Eurasia, in many of which it is an
archaeophyte An archaeophyte is a plant species which is non-native to a geographical region, but which was an introduced species in "ancient" times, rather than being a modern introduction. Those arriving after are called neophytes. The cut-off date is usua ...
(an ancient introduction). It has been naturalised to North America, and so can be regarded as having a
circumpolar distribution A circumpolar distribution is any range of a taxon that occurs over a wide range of longitudes but only at high latitudes; such a range therefore extends all the way around either the North Pole or the South Pole. Taxa that are also found in isola ...
. It is found throughout Europe (it is missing from Iceland, the Faroese and
Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group rang ...
, relatively rarer in the Arctic and the Mediterranean mainlands, and absent from Portugal and the Mediterranean islands). or details of distribution on the British Isles./ref> Its area then extends through the Greater Caucasus, the Armenian Highlands, northwestern Iran, Kazakhstan, southern
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
and up to the Pacific coast of
Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( rus, Хабaровск, a=Хабаровск.ogg, r=Habárovsk, p=xɐˈbarəfsk) is the largest city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China–Russia border, at the confluence of t ...
and Primorsky Krai, the Altai,
Tian Shan The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...
and
Pamir Pamir may refer to: Geographical features * Pamir Mountains, a mountain range in Central Asia ** Pamir-Alay, a mountain system in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, part of the Pamir Mountains *A pamir (valley) is a high plateau or valley surr ...
mountains, Korea and the Japanese Archipelago, all but the southeasternmost provinces of China, the mountains in the north of South Asia (in parts of Nepal at 2000–4600m, in Indian
Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...
and
Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu an ...
, in Pakistan's
Chitral Chitral ( khw, , lit=field, translit=ćhitrār; ur, , translit=ćitrāl) is situated on the Chitral River in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It serves as the capital of the Chitral District and before that as the capital of Chitral ...
, Hazara,
Kurram Valley Kurram District ( ps, کرم ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.The name Kurram comes from the river Kuramá ( ps, کورمه) in Pashto which itself derives from the Sanskrit name Kr ...
, and as far south as
Rawalpindi District Rawalpindi District ( Punjabi and ur, ) is a district located in the northernmost part of the Punjab province of Pakistan. Parts of the district form part of the Islamabad Rawalpindi metropolitan area. Rawalpindi city is the district capita ...
), and Ethiopia. It has also been introduced to Australia and the Americas. In the northern parts of the United States, its habitats include cropland, fallow fields, areas along roadsides and railroads, gardens plots, weedy meadows, and waste areas. This plant prefers disturbed areas, and its capacity to invade higher quality natural habitats is low.


Climate requirements

Pennycress grows well in many different climates. It can produce seeds in the northern hemisphere during the winter season. In the US and the Mediterranean it is sown commonly in October and can be harvested in May/June. To reach its yield potential a precipitation of about 300mm is needed. Pennycress has a rather low
water use efficiency Water-use efficiency (WUE) refers to the ratio of water used in plant metabolism to water lost by the plant through transpiration. Two types of water-use efficiency are referred to most frequently: *photosynthetic water-use efficiency (also cal ...
needing 405 litres of water to produce 0.45kg of seeds. Material was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Limited water availability depresses the yield. In general, pennycress is not well adapted for arid environments where natural precipitation is the only source of moisture.


Ecology

Field pennycress is a weed of cultivated land and wasteland. A study in Germany indicates that a pennycress-corn double-cropping system improves spider diversity to a larger degree than mustard-corn, green fallow-corn and bare fallow-corn double cropping systems. The addition of pennycress to a corn rotation also increased and stabilized ground beetle diversity more effectively than a mustard (''Sinapis alba'')–corn rotation, a green fallow–corn rotation, or a bare fallow–corn rotation. This was mainly due to the evenness of plant cover throughout the growing season. Therefore, Bioenergy from double-cropped pennycress may support ground beetle diversity. Pennycress can be utilized as part of a comprehensive integrated weed management strategy. Fall establishment can provide early spring ground cover and suppress aggressive spring germinating weeds such as common lambsquarters (''Chenopodium album''), giant ragweed (''Ambrosia trifida''), and tall waterhemp (''Amaranthus tuberculatus''). Johnson et al. (2015) speculated that weed suppression may have been caused by allelopathic compounds rather than ground cover when pennycress seeding rates and companion crops were taken into account.


Agronomy


Seeding

Current studies suggest a seeding rate of 1500 seeds per meter square for Europe while 672 seeds per meter square is suggested for the US. This variability is due to different climates. The recommended seeding depth is around 1 cm. For good germination rates pennycress needs about 25-40mm of water and favours cold and wet conditions.


Fertilization

In order to increase yields several studies evaluated the effect of fertilization on pennycress. Generally cover crops like pennycress are used to take up the available nutrients to prevent them from leaching. Nitrate and sulphur fertilization had positive effects on the seed yield of pennycress, but also no fertilized treatments showed sufficient yields.


Harvesting yield

Pennycress can be harvested with common machinery used for grain/corn and soy bean production. This makes it favorable for integration in many crop rotations. As pennycress is grown over the winter period the combines for harvesting are available in spring time as the harvest of all other crops happens at a different time of the year. The seed yield ranges for pennycress grown as a production crop currently range from 1000 kg/ha to 1500 kg/ha


Integration in soy maize crop rotations

In the mid east of the US a common crop rotation is Soybean and Maize. After harvest the fields are kept as fallows. Pennycress appears to be especially well suited for oil production when cultivated before soybean. As a cover crop grown over the winter period with harvest taking place in spring, it can effectively reduce soil erosion, prevent nutrient leaching, improve soil structure and increase biodiversity. The required machinery for cultivation is already available in the region, as it is the same used for maize and soybean production.


Uses


Oil

The first attempts to grow pennycress as an oil crop took place in 1994. However, since 2002 it is more and more considered as a potential oil crop rather than a “noxious weed”. High
erucic acid Erucic acid is a monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acid, denoted 22:1ω9. It has the chemical formula CH3(CH2)7CH=CH(CH2)11COOH. It is prevalent in wallflower seed and other plants in the family Brassicaceae, with a reported content of 20 to 54% in ...
content (>300g per kg of its total seed oil DM) makes the oil from landraces unsuitable for food purposes. Pennycress landraces also contain
Glucosinolates Glucosinolates are natural components of many pungent plants such as mustard, cabbage, and horseradish. The pungency of those plants is due to mustard oils produced from glucosinolates when the plant material is chewed, cut, or otherwise damaged. T ...
, which make the usage as food undesirable. Recently pennycress oil has attracted great interest as raw material for jet fuel and Biodiesel production. Oils with high erucic acid are especially suitable for jet fuel production. Oil characteristics are highly influenced by specific environmental conditions such as precipitation.


Feed

Due to the high erucic acid content the seeds are unsuitable for human consumption. Instead, the biomass can be used as feed for livestock. Its fast growth under cold conditions favors the usage as fodder as a second crop. Its low biomass production makes it undesirable to concentrate on pennycress cultivation for fodder production.


Food

The field pennycress has a bitter taste; it is usually
parboiled Parboiling (or leaching) is the partial or semi boiling of food as the first step in cooking. The word is from the Old French 'parboillir' (to boil thoroughly) but by mistaken association with 'part' it has acquired its current meaning. The wo ...
to remove the bitter taste. This is mostly used in
salad A salad is a dish consisting of mixed, mostly natural ingredients with at least one raw ingredient. They are typically served at room temperature or chilled, though some can be served warm. Condiments and salad dressings, which exist in a va ...
s, sometimes in sandwich spreads. It is said to have a distinctive flavour.


Use as a source of biodiesel

Pennycress is being developed as an oilseed crop for production of renewable fuels. The species can be planted in the fall, will germinate and form a vegetative mass which can overwinter. In the spring, the oil-rich seed can be harvested and used as a biodiesel feedstock.


Research

Pennycress is related to the model plant species ''
Arabidopsis thaliana ''Arabidopsis thaliana'', the thale cress, mouse-ear cress or arabidopsis, is a small flowering plant native to Eurasia and Africa. ''A. thaliana'' is considered a weed; it is found along the shoulders of roads and in disturbed land. A winter a ...
''. Researchers have begun studying the genetics of pennycress in order to improve its potential use as a biofuel crop. For example, the transcriptome of pennycress has been sequenced.


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q161867 Brassicaceae Flora of Europe Flora of temperate Asia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus