Lepidium chalepense

Lens-podded hoary cress

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Lens-podded hoary cress is a naturalized perennial herb found in California's Foothills and Great Basin regions in disturbed areas, pastures, fields, and riverbanks at elevations of 300 to 4,200 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces small white flowers in delicate clusters with petals 3 to 5 millimeters long. Growing with erect or partially decumbent stems 2 to 6 meters tall and many-branched toward the top, it forms dense patches with stiff hairs covering most of its structure. Its leaves vary from obovate to spoon-shaped at the base, becoming oblong to lanceolate along the stem, with bases that can be lobed or clasping and edges ranging from entire to slightly toothed. The fruit is an obovoid pod 3.5 to 5.8 millimeters long with smooth, thin walls and a wingless tip.

Habitat: Disturbed areas, pastures, fields, riverbanks

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: 300-4200 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, GB

California counties: San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Kern, Sacramento, Yolo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Mono, Tulare, Contra Costa, Modoc, Plumas, San Luis Obispo, Shasta, Fresno, Yuba, San Joaquin, Alameda, Solano, Lassen, Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Placer, Colusa, Siskiyou, Monterey, San Diego, Napa

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