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lesser swinecress, lesser wartcress

cress, peppercress, peppergrass, pepperwort

Habit Plants annual, fetid, glabrous or pilose. Herbs annual, biennial, or perennial, sometimes subshrubs or shrubs; roots slender.
Stems

often decumbent, 1–4.5(7) dm.

Basal leaves

not rosulate, 1–6(8) cm, 1- or 2-pinnatisect;

lobes entire or dentate, sometimes deeply lobed;

petioles 0.5–4(6) cm.

rosulate or not;

margins entire, dentate, or 1–3-pinnatisect.

Cauline leaves

similar to basal, 1.5–3.5(4.5) × 0.5–1.2 cm, bases not auriculate, petiolate to subsessile.

bases sometimes auriculate or amplexicaul, petiolate or sessile.

Inflorescences

rachises glabrous or pubescent with straight cylindrical trichomes, fruiting pedicels divaricate to horizontal; terete; straight or slightly recurved, 1.4–2.5(4) mm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent adaxially.

bracts 0.

Flowers

sepals caducous, 0.5–0.7(0.9) mm;

petals elliptic to linear, 0.4–0.5 × ~0.1 mm, white;

stamens 2; median;

styles absent or obsolete, included in apical notch.

radially symmetric;

sepals ovate or oblong;

lateral pair not saccate;

petals sometimes rudimentary or absent;

blades white, yellow, pink, or purple, obtuse or emarginate;

claws absent or distinct, nectar glands 4 or 6; distinct; median glands often present;

stamens 2 or 4 and equal in length;

lateral or median, or 6 and tetradynamous;

anthers ovate or oblong;

filaments unappendaged;

ovules 2 per ovary;

septa complete or perforated;

styles absent, obsolete, or distinct;

stigmas capitate; entire or rarely 2-lobed.

Fruits

indehiscent, didymous, 1.3–1.7 × 2–2.5 mm; apical notch 0.2–0.4 mm deep;

valves thick, rugose, glabrous, strongly veined; wingless.

dehiscent, schizocarpic, or indehiscent silicles, angustiseptate or rarely inflated and terete, unsegmented, apically winged or wingless; replums rounded.

Seeds

ovate, 1–1.2 × 0.7–0.8 mm;

cotyledons incumbent.

2(4) per fruit, 1(2) per locule, oblong or obovate; plump or flattened, usually mucilaginous when wetted, winged, margined, or wingless;

cotyledons incumbent, rarely accumbent or diplecolobal.

Trichomes

absent or simple.

2n

=32.

Lepidium didymum

Lepidium

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Disturbed areas, fields, pastures. Flowering May–Oct. 0–300 m. Est, WV. CA, WA; north to British Columbia, eastern Canada and US, southern US; nearly worldwide. Exotic.

Worldwide. 252 species; 18 species treated in Flora.

Based on extensive molecular and developmental studies (Bowman et al. 1999; Mummenhoff et al. 2001, 2009), the limits of Lepidium were expanded by Al-Shehbaz et al. (2002) and Al-Shehbaz & Mummenhoff (2010) to include the genera Cardaria, Coronopus, Stroganowia, Stubendorffia, and Winklera, all of which were found to be polyphyletic and nested within a more inclusive Lepidium. Lepidium graminifolium and L. ruderale have been collected on ballast, in Linnton (Multnomah County), but apparently failed to persist.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 494
Ihsan Al-Shehbaz
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 490
Ihsan Al-Shehbaz
Sibling taxa
L. acutidens, L. appelianum, L. campestre, L. chalepense, L. davisii, L. densiflorum, L. dictyotum, L. draba, L. graminifolium, L. heterophyllum, L. latifolium, L. montanum, L. nitidum, L. oblongum, L. perfoliatum, L. pinnatifidum, L. ruderale, L. sativum, L. strictum, L. virginicum
Subordinate taxa
L. acutidens, L. appelianum, L. campestre, L. chalepense, L. davisii, L. densiflorum, L. dictyotum, L. didymum, L. draba, L. graminifolium, L. heterophyllum, L. latifolium, L. montanum, L. nitidum, L. oblongum, L. perfoliatum, L. pinnatifidum, L. ruderale, L. sativum, L. strictum, L. virginicum
Synonyms Coronopus didymus
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