Habit: Annual to perennial herb (shrub); hairs 0 or simple.
Leaf: basal rosetted or not, petioled, entire, dentate, to 1--3-pinnately lobed; cauline short-petioled to sessile, base occasionally lobed to clasping.
Inflorescence: elongated or congested.
Flower: sepals erect or spreading, oblong to ovate, base not sac-like; petals linear to obovate, white or yellow (pink or purple), occasionally reduced or 0; stamens 2, 4, or 6.
Fruit: silicle, generally dehiscent, oblong to ovate, obcordate, or round (spectacle-shaped), flat perpendicular to septum (inflated), unsegmented.
Seed: 2(4), gelatinous when wet; wing narrow or 0.
Species In Genus: 220 species: all continents except Antarctica.
Etymology: (Greek: little scale, from fruit)
Jepson eFlora Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz
Reference: Al-Shehbaz et al. 2002 Novon 12:5--11
Unabridged Reference: Hitchcock 1936 Madroño 3:265--300Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Lepidium
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