Arugula (also known as rocket or roquette) holds a special place in the pantheon of leafy greens, offering a unique flavor that no other can provide.Wild arugula (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) is a perennial which can survive moderate frosts and grow back every year.Arugula seeds can often survive the winter and germinate in the spring when the ground thaws.Despite garden arugula surviving frosts, it’s still an annual, so after it flowers and produces its seeds, the plant will die off.When they bolt, it’s even easier to identify them, since all garden arugula varieties produce white flowers with four long petals, while wild arugula varieties produce smaller yellow flowers, similar to mustard.If you’ve grown these other Brassicaceae vegetables before, you likely have noticed that a lot of them bolt very easily in hot weather — arugula is no exception.(Gardener’s note: As I’m writing this, after less than a week of unusually hot weather, almost all my Astro arugula has bolted with many flowers opened up, while most of my Wild Rocket arugula still hasn’t bolted, and only a few just have their first buds.).The buds, flowers, and even the young, tender seed pods of all arugula varieties are edible, too.Some garden arugula varieties, like Astro , can reach maturity within 30 days (sooner for baby arugula) while the super bolt-resistant Wild Rocket will take 50 days, not including the extra time for germination.If you don’t mind waiting longer before you can harvest and you like the flavor of wild arugula, grow that.You can use another common method of harvesting arugula which involves bunching the leaves together and cutting across the plant (sort of like mowing the top of the plant), but you still need to avoid cutting the central growing tip if you want it to grow back.Wild arugula gets spicier and will produce smaller leaves after bolting, but is otherwise good to eat.After bolting, you can still cut individual arugula leaves, similar to the cut-and-come-again method of harvesting for other salad greens.You can also harvest the buds, flowers, and even the young, green seed pods.Bolted arugula is still edible, but it will have a stronger spicy flavor, it will be more bitter, and the stems and petioles may be tougher