Lepidium didymum |
Lepidium |
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lesser swinecress, lesser wartcress |
cress, peppercress, peppergrass, pepperwort |
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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. |
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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. |
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2n | =32. |
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Lepidium didymum |
Lepidium |
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Distribution | ||
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 | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Coronopus didymus | |
Web links |
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