Annuals, biennials, or perennials; glabrous or nearly so. Stems branched distally, 3-9 dm. Basal leaves (early deciduous); petiole 1.5-6 cm; blade lyrate-pinnatifid, 3-10(-15) cm × 10-65 mm, lobes 1-3 (or 4) each side. Cauline leaves shortly petiolate; blade (often lanceolate, reduced in size distally), base tapered or cuneate, not auriculate, (apex acute). Racemes paniculately branched. Fruiting pedicels spreading to divaricately ascending, (slender), (5-)10-15(-25) mm. Flowers: sepals 3-8 × 1-1.7 mm; petals pale yellow, narrowly obovate, 7-15 × 3-4 mm, claw 2-3 mm, apex rounded; filaments 3-6 mm; anthers 1.5-2 mm; gynophore 1-1.5 mm in fruit. Fruits (stipitate), spreading to divaricately ascending, strongly torulose, linear, subcylindric, 1.5-3 cm × 1.5-2 mm; valvular segment with 5-13 seeds per locule, 1.2-2.5 cm, terminal segment seedless or 1-seeded, (conic), 3-6 mm. Seeds brown or yellow, 0.6-1.2 mm diam.; seed coat finely reticulate-alveolate, not mucilaginous when wetted. 2n = 16.

Flowering Dec-Mar. Coastal plains and basins, deserts, valleys; 0-300 m; introduced; Calif.; s Europe; nw Africa.

Brassica fruticulosa is naturalized in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Mateo counties.