The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Lepidium ruderale

Etymology

Lepidium: scale-shaped (pods)
ruderale: From the Latin ruderatum 'rubble, waste', meaning growing in wasteland or amongst debris

Common Name(s)

roadside pepperweed, stink cress, narrow-leaved cress

Authority

Lepidium ruderale L.

Family

Brassicaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Herbs other than Composites

Distribution

Exotic. Known in New Zealand from a few sites in Central Otago and from Invercargill, South Island

Habitat

A weedy plant of roadsides and urban wasteland

Features

Herbs annual or biennial, (50-)100-350(-550) mm tall, fetid, puberulent with terete papillate trichomes. Stems erect or ascending, branched above. Basal leaves with petioles 10-30 mm; leaf blade (1 or)2- or 3-pinnatisect, (15-)30-50(-60) × (5-)7-2(-25) mm, glabrous except for ciliate margin; ultimate lobes oblong, entire or rarely toothed, acute. Upper cauline leaves sessile; leaf blade linear, (4-)10-20(-30) × (0.3-)0.5-2.5(-3.5) mm, sparsely pubescent, base cuneate, not auriculate, margin usually entire, ciliate, apex obtuse to subacute. Fruiting pedicels slender, divaricate, straight or slightly curved, (1.5-)2.0-4.0(-5.0) mm, puberulent all around. Sepals oblong, 0.5-0.9(-1.0) × 0.2-0.4 mm, puberulent with papillate trichomes, margin and apex white. Petals absent, sometimes rudimentary and to 0.4 mm. Stamens 2; filaments 0.7-0.8 mm; anthers ovate, 0.1-0.2 mm. Fruit broadly elliptic, (1.5-)1.8-2.5(-3.0) × 1.5-2.0(-2.3) mm, narrowly winged apically; apical notch 0.1-0.2 mm; style to 0.1 mm, included in apical notch. Seeds brown, oblong or ovate-oblong, 1.0-1.5 × 0.6-0.7 mm, wingless, finely papillate.

Flowering

May-July

Fruiting

May-July

Chromosome No.

2n = 16, 32

Endemic Taxon

No

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

Year Naturalised

1969

Origin

Europe

This page last updated on 7 Dec 2010