Diplotaxis harra Seeds | Wild Rocket
LATIN NAME: Diplotaxis harra
COMMON NAME: Wild Rocket
Plant Profile
Wild Rocket (Diplotaxis harra) is a perennial in the mustard family. Wild rocket shrugs off heat and dry ground that finish other greens. Plant is a tough, generous salad green of the Mediterranean ways. It is a plant of open, sunny, sharply drained ground. In combination, these characteristics make a persuasive case for growing it.
Science & Biotechnology
Botanists studying the mustard family regularly include Diplotaxis harra in comparative work, and the species also appears in horticultural trials aimed at gardeners and growers. Wild rocket has a long, unassuming record in plant science, studied for deeply lobed leaves with peppery bite and way plant stands dry ground. For practical purposes the message is encouraging: generations of cultivation have produced plants of predictable, well-mannered garden character.
Uses & Benefits
Wild Rocket brings genuine presence to the garden and earns its keep across the growing season. Wild rocket is a tough, tasty plant of warm, dry ground. Deeply lobed leaves carry fine, peppery, mustard bite that lifts salads, pastas, pizzas and the light sautés, and plant gives pickings through warm months when lettuce runs to seed. Plant is a fine, easy choice for dry border, gravel garden and pot, standing heat well. Once it has its roots down, it more or less looks after itself.
Wall rocket is a peppery Mediterranean salad green, a pungent glucosinolate-rich wildling of the cabbage family.
Growing from Seed
Raising Wild Rocket from seed is straightforward. Sow thinly on the surface of a loose, well-drained seed compost, cover lightly, water in gently and keep the tray in a sunny spot with even moisture. Prick the seedlings out once they are large enough to handle, grow them on in bright light, and plant out when conditions allow.
Our Take
It forms a perennial, which makes spacing and siting straightforward. Careful watering early on is rewarded by toughness at maturity.
Related Reading
More species in the same orbit as Wild Rocket: