Lepidium ruderale L., Sp. Pl. 645. 1753; Hook. f. & T. Anderson in Fl. Brit. India 1: 160. 1872, p. p.

Eng.: Roadside-pepper-grass.

Herbs, annual or biennial, up to 40 cm high; stems erect, ascending, diffusely branched, glabrous or finely hairy. Basal leaves rosulate, elliptic-ovate, or oblong-linear, long-petioled, 5 - 7 x 1 - 2 cm, bipinnately lobed with an oblanceolate, serrulate-dentate and subacute terminal lobe; lower cauline leaves lanceolate to narrowly oblong, gradually narrowed towards base, sessile, entire, obtuse or subacute at apex, 1.5 - 3 cm long; upper leaves linear-oblong, entire. Racemes lateral and terminal, elongating up to 15 cm long in fruit, glabrous or hairy; pedicels filiform, spreading, 2.5 - 3 mm long in fruit, minutely hairy. Sepals oblong-elliptic to narrowly ovate-lanceolate, ca 1 mm long, white-margined. Petals absent or very reduced. Stamens 2. Fruit ovate or elliptic-ovate silicula, emarginate at apex, 2.2 - 3 x 2 - 2.8 mm, minutely hairy; style very short, included within notch. Seeds ovoid, reddish brown, ca 1.25 x 0.75 mm; cotyledons incumbent

Fl. & Fr. April - Aug.

Distrib. India: Jammu & Kashmir and Tamil Nadu.

C. & S.W. Asia and Europe.