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feather-leaf pepper-weed, wayside pepper grass

Habit Annuals; puberulent.
Stems

simple from base, erect, (paniculately) branched beyond base or distally, 2–6 dm.

Basal leaves

(soon withered, often before anthesis);

not rosulate;

blade dentate to pinnatifid.

Cauline leaves

shortly petiolate to subsessile;

blade narrowly oblanceolate to linear, 1–3.3 cm × 1–4 mm, base attenuate, not auriculate, margins entire.

Racemes

(often paniculate), considerably elongated in fruit;

rachis glabrous or puberulent, trichomes straight, cylindrical.

Flowers

sepals oblong, 0.7–0.8 × 0.3–0.4 mm;

petals (rudimentary), white, linear, 0.4–0.6 × 0.05–0.1 mm, claw absent;

stamens 4, median and lateral;

filaments 0.6–0.8 mm;

anthers ca. 0.2 mm.

Fruiting pedicels

divaricate-ascending to horizontal, straight, (terete), 2–3.5 × 0.1–0.15 mm, puberulent adaxially.

Fruits

orbicular to broadly elliptic, 1.8–2 × 1.7–1.8 mm, apically not winged, apical notch 0.05–0.1 mm deep;

valves thin, smooth, not veined, sparsely pilose;

style ca. 0.1 mm, equaling apical notch.

Seeds

oblong, 1–1.2 × 0.7–0.8 mm.

Lepidium pinnatifidum

Phenology Flowering May–Jun.
Habitat Waste places, disturbed sites
Elevation 0-600 m (0-2000 ft)
Distribution
from USDA
e Europe; w Asia [Introduced, Calif.]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Lepidium pinnatifidum apparently has not become a serious weed of the Californian flora.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 7, p. 591.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Lepidieae > Lepidium
Sibling taxa
L. acutidens, L. alyssoides, L. appelianum, L. austrinum, L. barnebyanum, L. campestre, L. chalepense, L. coronopus, L. crenatum, L. davisii, L. densiflorum, L. dictyotum, L. didymum, L. draba, L. eastwoodiae, L. flavum, L. fremontii, L. heterophyllum, L. huberi, L. integrifolium, L. jaredii, L. lasiocarpum, L. latifolium, L. latipes, L. montanum, L. nanum, L. nitidum, L. oblongum, L. ostleri, L. oxycarpum, L. papilliferum, L. paysonii, L. perfoliatum, L. ramosissimum, L. ruderale, L. sativum, L. sordidum, L. strictum, L. thurberi, L. tiehmii, L. virginicum
Name authority Ledebour: Fl. Ross. 1: 206. (1841)
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