Brassicaceae or Cruciferae is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leaves are simple, lack stipules, and appear alternately on stems or in rosettes. The inflorescences are terminal and lack bracts. The flowers have four free sepals, four free alternating petals, two shorter free stamens and four longer free stamens. The fruit has seeds in rows, divided by a thin wall.
Cress, sometimes referred to as garden cress to distinguish it from similar plants also referred to as cress, is a rather fast-growing, edible herb.
Cardamine is a large genus of flowering plants in the mustard family, Brassicaceae, known as bittercresses and toothworts. It contains more than 200 species of annuals and perennials. Species in this genus can be found in diverse habitats worldwide, except the Antarctic. The name Cardamine is derived from the Greek kardaminē, water cress, from kardamon, pepper grass.
Lepidium meyenii, known as maca or Peruvian ginseng, is an edible herbaceous biennial plant of the family Brassicaceae that is native to South America in the high Andes mountains of Peru and Bolivia. It was rediscovered for commercial purposes at the Meseta de Bombón plateau close to Lake Junin in the late 1980s. It is grown for its fleshy hypocotyl that is fused with a taproot, which is typically dried but may also be freshly cooked as a root vegetable. As a cash crop, it is primarily exported as a powder that may be raw or processed further as a gelatinized starch or as an extract. If dried, it may be processed into a flour for baking or as a dietary supplement.
Lepidium latifolium, known by several common names including perennial pepperweed, broadleaved pepperweed, pepperwort, or peppergrass, dittander, dittany, and tall whitetop, is a perennial plant that is a member of the mustard and cabbage family.
Lepidium campestre, the field pepperwort, field peppercress, field peppergrass, field pepperweed or field cress, is usually a biennial with some form of annual plant in the Brassicaceae or mustard family, native to Europe, but commonly found in North America as an invasive weed. The most notable characteristic of field pepperweed is the raceme of flowers which forks off of the stem. These racemes are made up of first small white flowers and later green, flat and oval seedpods each about 6 mm long and 4 mm wide. Each seedpod contains two brown, 2.5 mm long seeds.
Coronopus is a synonym for the accepted genus name Lepidium. It was applied to some species of flowering plants in the cabbage and mustard family Brassicaceae known commonly as swinecress or wartcress. These are generally low spreading annual herbaceous plants with many long stems, deeply lobed leaves and small white flowers. They have a strong scent, smelling like garden cress, Lepidium sativum, when crushed. Lepidium squamatus may be native to the Mediterranean but Lepidium didymum may be native to South America. Both species are widespread weedy introduced species in other areas.
Lepidium oleraceum is a herb in the family Brassicaceae, endemic to New Zealand. Its English common name is Cook's scurvy grass; Māori names include nau, ngau, naunau and heketara.
Lepidium densiflorum is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common names common pepperweed, prairie peppergrass, elongate peppergrass, hairy-fruited peppergrass, and large-fruited peppergrass.
Lepidium flavum is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name yellow pepperweed. It is native to California, Nevada, and Baja California, where it grows in the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts. The species epithet flavum is Latin for yellow and indicates its flower colour.
Lepidium montanum is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common names mountain pepperweed, mountain peppergrass, mountain pepperwort, and mountain pepperplant. It is native to western North America from Oregon to Montana to northern Mexico, where it can be found in a number of habitats, often on salty or gravelly soils. There are several varieties, many of which are difficult to distinguish.
Lepidium barnebyanum is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common names Barneby's pepperweed, Barneby's pepper-grass, and Barneby's ridge-cress. It is endemic to Utah, where there is a single population in Duchesne County. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.
Lepidium ruderale is species of flowering plants in the mustard or cabbage family, Brassicaceae. It is native to temperate Asia and northern and eastern Europe. It has also naturalized in southwestern Europe and North America. Its common names include roadside pepperweed, narrow-leaved pepperwort, narrow-leaf pepperwort, and peppergrass.
Lepidium banksii, known as coastal peppercress, is a rare species of flowering plant from the family Brassicaceae. It is endemic to New Zealand, formerly found around the coast of the northern South Island but now critically endangered.
Lepidium heterophyllum,, is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family which is native to parts of western Europe, growing in shingle banks, wasteland or cultivated fields.
Lepidium coronopus,, is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family which is native to parts of Africa, western Asia and Europe, growing in shingle banks, wasteland or cultivated fields.
Lepidium foliosum, commonly known as leafy peppercress, is a shrubby species of plant found in southern regions of Australia, usually close to the coast. The herbaceous species is shrubby in form, with hairless leaves and stem, and resembles others plants of the mustard family Brassicaceae.
