Plant · P-201

Wild Rocket

Diplotaxis tenuifolia

Wild rocket is a perennial, deep-rooted relative of common arugula with the same peppery flavor turned up a notch - strong enough that it is usually eaten mixed into a salad rather than alone. One planting keeps producing from early spring into autumn, and it holds fresh leaves right through mild winters, so it never needs the repeated re-sowing an annual green does. Summer heat does not kill it, but it stops making leaves and starts flowering instead, which turns out to be useful, since its shallow flowers are a magnet for hoverflies and short-tongued bees whose larvae prey on aphids. It tolerates poor, dry, alkaline soil and resprouts readily after being cut, staying put as a clump rather than spreading.