Clasping Pepperweed

Easily distinguished by its dimorphic leaves and yellow flowers.

Sometimes eaten as a vegetable or used medicinally as an antiscorbutic.

Annual or biennial, 15-30 cm tall, erect, branched mostly above, subhairy below with simple hairs, glabrous or subglabrous above. Leaves dimorphic; lower leaves bipinnatisect, 5-10 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm broad, short stalked; lobes narrowly linear, short, acute; middle and upper leaves ovate-cordate, sessile, amplexicaul, 1-1.5 cm long, 1-2 cm broad, entire, acute; all leaves somewhat fleshy, ± glabrous. Racemes 30-70-flowered, ebracteate, up to 8 cm long in fruit. Flowers small, c. 2 mm across, pale yellow; pedicel up to 7 mm long in fruit, filiform, spreading or ascending. Sepals c. 1 mm long, 0.6 mm broad, oblong, obtuse. Petals c. 1.7 mm long, 0.5 mm broad, oblong-spathulate, clawed, apex rounded. Stamens 6, c. 1: 1.4 mm long with minute anthers. Siliculae 3-4 mm in diam., suborbicular or broadly elliptic, slightly winged and notched at the apex; style short with capitate stigma slightly protuding out of the notch; valves thin, obscurely winged; septum c. 1 mm broad; seed c. 2 mm long, ovate-oblong, reddish brown.

Herbs annual or biennial, (7-)15-40(-65) cm tall, glabrous throughout or sparsely pubescent below, often slightly glaucous. Stems erect, simple at base, branched above. Leaves strongly dimorphic. Basal and lowermost cauline leaves with petioles (0.5-)1-2(-4) cm; leaf blade 2- or 3-pinnatifid or -pinnatisect, (1-)3-8(-15) cm; ultimate lobes linear or narrowly oblong. Upper cauline leaves sessile; leaf blade broadly ovate, cordate, or suborbicular, (0.5-)1-3(-4) × (0.5-)1-2.5(-3.5) cm, base deeply cordate-amplexicaul, margin entire, apex acute. Fruiting pedicels divaricate, 3-5(-7) mm, slender, straight, glabrous, terete. Sepals yellowish green, oblong, 0.8-1(-1.3) × 0.5-0.8 mm. Petals yellow, narrowly spatulate, 1-1.5(-1.9) × 0.2-0.5 mm, base attenuate to a claw ca. 0.5 mm. Stamens 6; filaments 0.6-0.9 mm; anthers 0.1-0.2 mm. Fruit rhombic or orbicular, 3-4.5(-4.8) × 3-4 mm narrowly winged distally; wings apical, 0.2-0.4 mm; apical notch to ca. 0.3 mm; style 0.1-0.3 mm, as long as or shorter than apical notch. Seeds dark brown, ovate, 1.6-2(-2.3) × 1.2-1.4 mm, narrowly winged all around; cotyledons incumbent. Fl. Mar-Jun, fr. May-Jul. 2n = 16.

Distribution: C. and S. Europe, eastward to Pakistan.

Gansu, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Afghanistan, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; N Africa, SW Asia, Europe; introduced elsewhere].

Fl. Per.: March-July.

Waste places, dry sandy slopes; near sea level to 1000 m.