Lepidium densiflorum

Common pepper grass

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: annual · Native

Common pepper grass is a California native annual found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, southern California Coast, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert in fields, pastures, meadows, and disturbed sites at elevations up to 3,500 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces small white flowers in elongated clusters with thread-like petals. Growing with erect, branching stems 25 to 50 centimeters tall, it develops characteristic spoon-shaped or oblanceolate leaves that are often serrate or pinnately lobed. Its mid-stem leaves are narrow, tapering at the base, and range from 1.3 to 6.2 centimeters long with a width of 1.5 to 10 millimeters. The fruit is an obovate, flattened pod 2.5 to 3 millimeters long with a delicate winged tip.

Habitat: Fields, pastures, meadows, disturbed sites, floodplains, chaparral

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: < 3500 m

Bioregions: KR, CaR, n&ampc SNH, GV, SCo, GB, DMoj

California counties: El Dorado, Inyo, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tulare, Madera, Mono, Alpine, Mariposa, San Francisco, Riverside, San Bernardino, Fresno, Placer, Nevada, Sierra, Orange, Humboldt, Modoc, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Siskiyou, Monterey

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