Lepidium campestre

Cow cress

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Cow cress is a naturalized annual herb found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada, and California Ranges in disturbed areas, fields, woodland, and meadows at elevations of 100 to 2,600 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces small white flowers about 1 to 1.8 millimeters long with delicate spoon-shaped petals. Growing to heights of 1.2 to 5 meters with erect stems that are simple or branched, it develops dense, stiff hairs along its structure. Its leaves form a basal rosette and include mid-stem leaves that are sessile, ranging from oblanceolate to lanceolate, with some leaves dentate or partially entire and featuring a sagittate or lobed base. The fruit is widely oblong to ovate, flat, and broadly winged at the tip, with thin papillate valve walls.

Habitat: Common. Disturbed areas, fields, woodland, meadows

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 100-2600 m

Bioregions: KR, CaR, n SN

California counties: Placer, Tuolumne, Kern, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, Trinity, Tulare, Calaveras, Humboldt, Nevada, San Diego, Sierra, Yuba, Amador, Alpine, Modoc, El Dorado, Del Norte, Butte, Mono, Monterey, Mendocino, Lassen, Contra Costa, Tehama, Napa, San Mateo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.