Erophila verna (L.) Besser, Enum. Pl. Volhyn. 22. 1822. Draba verna L., Sp. Pl. 642. 1753. Erophila vulgaris DC., Syst. Nat. 2: 356.1821; Hook. f. & T. Anderson in Fl. Brit. India 1: 145. 1872.

Herbs, annual; stems solitary or branched, erect or spreading, aphyllous, rarely 1-leaved, 3 - 10 (-20) cm high in fruit, hairy at base with simple or forked hairs and glabrous above. Leaves basal, in rosette, spathuate or broadly lanceolate or elliptic, attenuate at base, entire or remotely few dentate along margins, slightly acute at apex, hairy with simple and forked hairs. Flowers white, rarely pinkish, 10 - 20 in dense corymbose racemes; pedicels filiform, erect, glabrous, up to 10 mm long in fruit. Sepals 1.5 - 2 mm long, glabrous or pilose, white-margined. Petals deeply bifid at apex, 2.5 - 3.5 mm long. Stamens up to 2 mm long. Fruits erect-spreading, oblong-ellipsoid to almost orbicular, with short style at apex, variable, 5 - 8 (-10) x (1.5 -) 2 - 3 (-4) mm. Seeds 10 - 20 in each locule, ca 0.5 mm long.

Fl. & Fr. Mar. - June.

Distrib. India: Jammu & Kashmir.

Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, C. & W. Asia, Europe, N. Africa and N.E. America.

Notes. A very polymorphic species showing extreme phenotypic plasticity. Several varieties have been described from Europe, Central and W. Asia.