Cut-leaf mignonette

Cut-leaf Mignonette (Reseda lutea) is a sprawling to upright perennial herb, up to 80 cm high. Plants are hairless, but sometimes have minute wart-like outgrowths along stems. The initial leaves form a basal rosette, these are usually unlobed or with shallow toothed edges, to 7 cm long and 8 mm wide. Stem leaves are divided, with 3-7 narrow lobes, each 0.5-6 cm long, 1-7 mm wide, sometimes with smaller secondary lobes. Flowers are numerous, in narrow cylindrical flowering stems above the leafy parts of the stems, mostly 10-25 (occasionally to 40) cm long. Individual flowers occur on stalks 2-6 mm long, with an outer row of 6 greenish-yellow linear sepals 2-4 mm long, and an inner row of 5 slightly longer, broader, lobed yellow petals. Stamens mostly 14-18 per flower. The fruits (capsules) are roughly egg-shaped, 8-13 mm long, obscurely 3-angled and 3-toothed at the tip. There are mostly 20-30 brown and shining seeds per capsule, each about 1.5 mm long