Lepidium capitatum Hook. f. & Thomson in J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 5: 175. 1861; Hook. f. & T. Anderson in Fl. Brit. India 1: 160. 1872.

Herbs, annual, procumbent or suberect up to 30 cm long; stems profusely branched, more or less glandular hairy; branches spreading from base. Leaves simple, tubercled, glabrous or rarely very minutely capitate-hairy along margins and on ventral mid-vein; radical leaves short-petioled, pinnatisect, gradually narrowed to base, with narrow, oblong, acute lobes, 3 - 6 x 1 - 2 cm; cauline leaves gradually smaller, sessile, more or less similar, cuneate-oblong, pinnatifid or coarsely dentate-laciniate, mostly above the middle; uppermost linear, entire. Flowers white, in dense compact racemes forming capitulum on lateral and terminal branches; pedicels thick, minutely capitate, hairy, up to 2 mm long in flower, ca 5 mm long in fruit. Sepals ovate or elliptic-oblong, concave, white-margined, ca 1 x 0.5 mm, glabrous. Petals broader and shorter than sepals, obovate, spathulate, narrowed at base, obtuse or retuse at apex. Stamens 4, ca 1 mm long, 2 laterals rudimentary or absent. Fruits ovate, emarginate, narrowly winged, 2 - 2.5 x 1.75 - 2 mm, glabrous; stigma sessile, equalling the notch or a little shorter. Seeds ovate, pale brown, ca 1.25 x 0.6 mm; cotyledons incumbent.

Fl. & Fr. July - Oct.

Distrib. India: Damp grassy slopes, 3200 - 4000 m. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim and West Bengal.

Nepal, Bhutan and China (Tibet).