Chorispora tenella (Pallas) DC. (syn.: Raphanus tenellus Pallas) (SE-Eur., As.) – A rare and ephemeral alien. Recorded in 1904 and 1910 as a wool alien in the valley of river Vesdre (Lambinon 1995). All recent records are associated with grain importation. In the past decades seen on the unloading quay for cereals at the Amerikadok in the port of Antwerpen in 1999, by a sandy roadverge in the port of Gent and on a dump near Roeselare, both in 2004, and finally in a worked-up roadside in the port of Antwerpen in 2012.
In general appearance Chorispora tenella much resembles Malcolmia africana. Both are annual weedy species with tiny violet petals and (at least in part) branched hairs and are rarely seen as grain aliens in the past decades. However, in Chorispora tenella the siliqua is long-beaked (beak at least half as long as the siliqua).
Chorispora tenella is an upcoming weed of agricultural fields in many parts of Central-Europe. A future naturalisation in Belgium is not unlikely.
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References
Bernhardt K.-G., Laubhann D. & Kropf M. (2008) Chorispora tenella, Diplotaxis erucoides und Capsella rubella (Brassicaceae) in Wien und Niederösterreich. Neilreichia 5: 211-216.
Garve E. & Zacharias D. (2009) Ein Fund von Chorispora tenella in Südniedersachsen. Floristische Rundbriefe 42: 77-82.
Kästner A. (2010) Chorispora tenella (Pall.) DC., Brassicaceae, Neubürger in der Flora von Sachsen-Anhalt. Mitt. Florist. Kart. Sachsen-Anhalt 15: 55-58. [available online at: http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/27404]
Lambinon J. (1995) Notes taxonomiques, nomenclaturales et chorologiques relatives à la quatrième édition de la « Nouvelle Flore » de la Belgique et des régions voisines. 3. Données nouvelles sur des plantes adventices ou subspontanées en Belgique. Dumortiera 60: 1-36.
Májovský J. & Feráková V. (1973) Chorispora tenella (Pall.) DC., nový druh slovenskej flóry, Biologia, A (Czechoslovakia) 28(1): 73-76.
Shu L. (2001) Chorispora. In : Cheo T. & al. (eds.), Flora of China. Vol. 8 : 147-149. [available online at: http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/pdf/PDF08/CHORISPORA.pdf]
Vymyslický T. & Grulich V. (2004) Chorispora tenella a Corispermum canescens na jižní Morave. Zpr. Ces. Bot. Spolec. 39: 167-170.