Naczi & Thieret (1996) have documented the slow spread of this alien annual (?) across eastern North America, and reported its first coll. from Ky. It has often been overlooked, and it has a confused nomenclatural history. The related plant, Eruca vesicaria (L.) Cavannlis ssp, sativus (Miller) Thellung is often cultivated as a salad green ("garden rocket" or :"arugula") has become naturalized across much of temperate North America, except in southeastern states (FNA 7, W); it is not known to escape in Ky. As in some other species of Brassiceae, these plants (also Diplotaxis) have high erucic acid and glucosinolate contents, which provide some culinary and medicinal potential but can cause allergies or other metabolic disruptions.