| Lesser swine-cress | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Brassicales |
| Family: | Brassicaceae |
| Genus: | Lepidium |
| Species: | L. didymum |
| Binomial name | |
| Lepidium didymum | |
| Synonyms | |
Coronopus didymus [2] | |
Lepidium didymum, the lesser swine-cress, [3] is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae.
Lepidium didymum is an annual or biennial herb [4] with decumbent or ascending and glabrous green stems, up to 40 centimetres (16 in) long, radiating from a central position. The leaves are pinnate and alternate and can reach a length of 5 cm (2 in). It blooms between July and September. The flowers are inconspicuous, the four white petals very short or absent, with 2 (rarely 4), [5] : 54 stamens and the fruits consist of two rounded valves, notched at the apex, with a very short style between. [6] : 405 [7] They are also wrinkled and contain orange or reddish brown seeds, that are 1–5 mm long. [7]
It was first described and published by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 'Mant. Pl.' (Mantissa Plantarum) on page 92 in 1767. [8] [1]
The specific epithet didymum, refers to the Greek word δίδυμα for 'twin' or 'in pairs', [9] referring to the seed capsule.
Lepidium didymum is of uncertain origin, [4] but is often cited as native to South America, [6] [5] mainly Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. [10] It has been introduced elsewhere as a weed of cultivation. It has naturalised across the globe, from Africa, Europe, Asia, Australasia, North America and South America. [10] In Britain, it had been recorded from the wild by 1778, [4] chiefly in England and the south of Ireland, [11] growing on cultivated and waste ground, in gardens and lawns, by paths and roadsides.
The leaves of this plant are edible, and have a salty, cress or mustard flavour. [12] [13]
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.
Lepidium is a genus of plants in the mustard/cabbage family, Brassicaceae. The genus is widely distributed in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Australia. It includes familiar species such as garden cress, maca, and dittander. General common names include peppercress, peppergrass, pepperweed, and pepperwort. Some species form tumbleweeds. The genus name Lepidium is a Greek word meaning 'small scale', which is thought to be derived from a folk medicine usage of the plant to treat leprosy, which cause small scales on the skin. Another meaning is related to the small scale-like fruit.
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.
Sisymbrium officinale, the hedge mustard, is a plant in the family Brassicaceae.
Lepidium virginicum, also known as least pepperwort or Virginia pepperweed, is an herbaceous plant in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). It is native to much of North America, including most of the United States and Mexico and southern regions of Canada, as well as most of Central America. It can be found elsewhere as an introduced species.
Iberis sempervirens, the evergreen candytuft or perennial candytuft, is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, native to southern Europe. The species is often used as an ornamental garden shrub because of its decorative flowers. Iberis is so named because many members of the genus come from the Iberian Peninsula in south west Europe. Sempervirens means "always green", referring to the evergreen foliage.
Lepidium draba, also known as whitetop, hoary cress, or Thanet cress, is a rhizomatous perennial flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is native to western Asia and southeastern Europe and has been widely introduced elsewhere.
Arabis hirsuta, known as hairy rock-cress, is a flowering plant of the genus Arabis in the family Brassicaceae. In previous North American works, this species has been broadly defined to include plants native to Europe, Asia, and the northern half of North America, but is now more often restricted to a narrower subgroup restricted to Europe.
Neottia cordata, the lesser twayblade or heartleaf twayblade, is an orchid of upland bogs and mires that rarely exceeds 15 cm (5.9 in) in height. It was formerly placed in the genus Listera, but molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that Neottia nidus-avis, the bird's-nest orchid, evolved within the same group.
Cardamine impatiens, the narrowleaf bittercress or narrow-leaved bitter-cress, is a plant species in the genus Cardamine of the family Brassicaceae. It is a slender, biennial herb, that produces sterile leaves in the first year, one to several flowering stems during the next. Its leaves are pinnate with several pairs of lanceolate, dentate leaflets and a terminal, slightly longer leaflet. The short petals surpass the calyx by half of its length. The seeds are arranged in one row on each side of the central membrane of the narrow pod and are ejected out in a shower due to the tension formed as the seed pod (silique) dries. It grows on walls, open ground in shady places in forests usually disturbed by man.
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.
Peltaria alliacea, or garlic cress, is a perennial flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is endemic to Albania, Austria, Hungary, Romania and former Yugoslavia. The plant grows up to 60 cm (24 in) and has white flowers from May to July. The plant is glabrous (hairless) with simple, entire leaves. The leaves are ovate, sessile and amplexicaule. When crushed they smell of garlic, hence the common name. The 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long white petals are shortly clawed. The orbicular, very flat silicula or seed, is pendent and has a size of about 6 by 6 mm. Its chromosome number is 2n=14.
Plantago coronopus, the buck's-horn plantain, is a herbaceous annual to perennial flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae. Other common names in the US and Italy include minutina and erba stella.
Lepidium perfoliatum is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common names clasping pepperweed and perfoliate pepperwort. It is native to Europe and Asia and it can be found in other parts of the world as an introduced species.
Rorippa palustris, marsh yellow cress, is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is widespread and native to parts of Africa, and much of Asia, Europe and Eurasia, North America and the Caribbean. It can also be found in other parts of the world as an introduced species and a common weed, for example, in Australia and South America. It is an adaptable plant which grows in many types of damp, wet, and aquatic habitat. It may be an annual, biennial, or perennial plant, and is variable in appearance as well.
Rorippa austriaca is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common names Austrian yellow-cress and Austrian fieldcress. It is native to parts of Europe and Asia, and it is known in North America as an introduced species and sometimes a noxious weed. It can grow in disturbed habitat, such as roadsides, and in very wet habitat such as mudflats. It is a perennial herb growing upright to erect, reaching a maximum height near one meter. The branching stem bears hairless blue-green lance-shaped leaves up to 10 centimeters long. The bases of the upper leaves clasp the stem. The inflorescence is a raceme at the top of the stem and the ends of stem branches. The mustardlike flowers have small yellow petals. The fruit is a plump silique a few millimeters long, but many plants do not fruit and seed production is rare. Reproduction in this species is more often vegetative, the plants concentrating their growth in belowground tissue and spreading clonally. The root system of the plant is particularly aggressive, sending up many new plants as it spreads.
Pilularia globulifera, or pillwort, is an unusual species of fern in the family Marsileaceae. It is native to western Europe, where it grows at the edges of lakes, ponds, ditches and marshes, on wet clay or clay-sand soil, sometimes in water up to 30 cm (12 in) deep.
Arabis caucasica is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family (Brassicaceae) known by the common names garden arabis, mountain rock cress or Caucasian rockcress.
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.
