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Lepidium didymum
Lepidium didymum
L.
Family:
Brassicaceae
lesser swinecress
[
Carara didyma
(L.) Britt.,
more
Coronopus didymus
(L.) Sm.
]
Flora of North America
General Description
Resources
Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz, John F. Gaskin in Flora of North America (vol. 7)
Annuals;
(fetid); glabrous or pilose.
Stems
few to several from base, erect to ascending or decumbent, branched distally, 1-4.5(-7) dm.
Basal leaves
(soon withered); not rosulate; petiole 0.5-4(-6) cm; blade 1- or 2-pinnatisect, 1-6(-8) cm, margins (of lobes) entire or dentate (sometimes deeply lobed).
Cauline leaves
shortly petiolate to subsessile; blade similar to basal, smaller and less divided distally, lobes lanceolate to oblong or elliptic, 1.5-3.5(-4.5) cm × 5-12 mm, base not auriculate, margins (of lobes) entire, serrate, or incised.
Racemes
elongated in fruit; rachis glabrous or pubescent, trichomes straight, cylindrical.
Fruiting pedicels
divaricate to horizontal, straight slightly recurved, (terete), 1.4-2.5(-4) × 0.15-2 mm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent adaxially.
Flowers:
sepals (tardily deciduous), ovate, 0.5-0.7(-0.9) mm; petals white, elliptic to linear, 0.4-0.5 × ca. 0.1 mm, claw absent; stamens 2, median; filaments 0.3-0.6 mm; anthers 0.1-0.2 mm.
Fruits
schizocarpic, didymous, 1.3-1.7 × 2-2.5 mm, apically not winged, apical notch 0.2-0.4 mm deep; valves thick, rugose, strongly veined, glabrous; style absent or obsolete, included in apical notch.
Seeds
ovate, 1-1.2 × 0.7-0.8 mm.
2
n
= 32. Flowering Mar-Jul. Roadsides, waste areas, lawns, pastures, fields, gardens, disturbed areas; 0-1000 m; introduced; B.C., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Que.; Ala., Ariz., Ark., Calif., Conn., Fla., Ga., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va., W.Va., Wis.; South America; introduced also in Mexico (Sinaloa), Central America (Honduras), Europe, Asia, s Africa, Australia.
Plant
: Annual; stem prostrate to decumbent, much-branched, 20-50 cm
Leaves
: many, ovate-oblong, very deeply pinnately lobed; lobes narrow, entire to dentate or dissected, basal and lower cauline petioled; upper subsessile
INFLORESCENCE
: raceme, from leaf axils, dense
Flowers
: ± 0.5 mm, bisexual; sepals, 4, free, spreading; petals free, linear, white; stamens 2 or 4; ovary 1, superior, chambers generally 2, septum membranous, connecting 2 parietal placentas, style 1, stigma simple or 2-lobed
Fruit
: Fruit: capsule of 2 nutlet-like halves, inflated except at septum, flat perpendicular to septum, sessile above receptacle, indehiscent; valves hardened, each ± surrounding 1 seed; pedicel 1.5-2.5 mm; Seed oblong to ± reniform; embryonic root at back of 1 cotyledon
Misc
: Disturbed areas, gardens, fields; < 2000 m.; Mar-Jul
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