n = c. 72 bivalents

Perennial herb. Stems ascending to erect, 15-30(-45) cm long, glabrous. Leaves glabrous, fleshy, bright grass-green. Basal and lower stem leaves withering at fruiting, pinnatifid, narrow-oblong to narrow-oblanceolate, 6-12 × 1.5-2.5 cm; pinnae in 3-7 pairs, sharply toothed at apex and distal margins. Middle stem leaves similar, or becoming shallowly pinnatifid, sharply serrate. Upper stem leaves narrow-obovate to linear-oblanceolate, pinnatifid to simple, sharply toothed at apex and at apex of pinnae if present, cuneate at base, 10-30(-50) × 2-6(-10) mm. Racemes 30-70(-100) mm long, terminal and axillary; rachis glabrous or sparsely hairy; pedicels sparsely hairy, erecto-patent, 3-5 mm long at fruiting. Flowers c. 3 mm diameter. Sepals glabrous or sparsely hairy, often some glabrous and some hairy within one flower, green with scarious margins, c. 1 × 1 mm. Petals white, slightly longer than sepals, spreading, clawed; limb obovate, emarginate. Stamens 4, equal. Nectaries 4, subulate, c. 0.25 mm long; nectar copious. Siliques* broadly elliptic, 2.8- 4.0 × 2.3-3.2 mm; style 0.1-0.2 mm long, free from the narrow wing, equal or exceeding the shallow notch; stigma 0.4 mm diam.; valves glabrous. Seed obovoid, orange-brown, not winged, 1.7-2 mm long, mucilaginous when wet. FL Oct-Mar, FR Nov-Apr. *We use the term silique in preference to silicle since the distinction between the two terms is artificial.

A Lepidio oleraceo foliis pinnatifidis, siliquis emarginatis; a L. flexicauli caulibus glabris, ascendentibus vel suberectis, dentibus foliorum acutis, margine laminae glabro, petalis unguiculatis, limbo petali patenti, emarginato, staminibus quattuor differt.