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Thurber's pepper grass, Thurber's pepperweed

Habit Annuals; pubescent, (trichomes cylindrical, to 1 mm, and much shorter, clavate ones).
Stems

often simple from base, erect, branched (several) distally, (0.8)1.2–4.9(–6) dm.

Basal leaves

(often withered at anthesis); rosulate;

petiole 1–3(–4.5) cm;

blade pinnatifid (lobes oblong to ovate or lanceolate), (1.4–)2.2–7(–10) cm, margins (of lobes) dentate-sinuate.

Cauline leaves

shortly petiolate; 1.5–6 cm × 6–25 mm, base not auriculate, margins (of lobes) entire or dentate.

Racemes

considerably elongated in fruit;

rachis pilose, trichomes straight, cylindrical (to 1 mm) with much smaller, clavate ones, sometimes one type present.

Flowers

sepals suborbicular to broadly ovate, 1–1.6 × 0.7–1 mm;

petals white, broadly obovate to suborbicular, 3–4 × 1.2–2.2 mm, claw 0.7–1.3 mm;

stamens 6;

filaments (median pairs) 1–1.6 mm, (glabrous);

anthers 0.4–0.5 mm.

Fruiting pedicels

divaricate-ascending to horizontal, straight or slightly recurved, (terete), 4–8(–10) × 0.2–0.3 mm, puberulent or pilose adaxially.

Fruits

broadly ovate to orbicular, 2–2.9 × 2–2.8 mm, apically winged, apical notch 0.1–0.2 mm deep;

valves thin, smooth, not veined, glabrous;

style 0.3–0.8 mm, exserted beyond apical notch.

Seeds

ovate-oblong, 1.3–1.6 × 0.8–1.1 mm.

Lepidium thurberi

Phenology Flowering Apr–Aug.
Habitat Salt flats, mesquite and creosote bush communities, playas, stream banks, sandy deserts, washes, clay bottoms, bluffs, gravelly granitic sand, grasslands, alluvial fans, roadsides, silty terraces, washes, gravelly flats
Elevation 600-1800 m (2000-5900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NM; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sonora)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 593.
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. pinnatifidum, L. ramosissimum, L. ruderale, L. sativum, L. sordidum, L. strictum, L. tiehmii, L. virginicum
Name authority Wooton: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 25: 259. (1898)
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