Smith's pepperwort

Lepidium heterophyllum is a perennial herb of the Brassicaceae family, growing 15 to 50 centimetres tall from a stout taproot, with several decumbent to ascending, hairy stems branching from the base. The basal leaves are stalked, oblanceolate, 2 to 6 centimetres long, with entire to coarsely toothed or somewhat pinnately lobed margins, while the stem leaves are sessile, ovate to lanceolate, partly clasping the stem with rounded auricles and with finely toothed margins. Small white four-petalled flowers about 2 to 3 millimetres across are borne in dense terminal racemes that elongate in fruit; the stamens have characteristically violet to purple anthers, a useful diagnostic feature. The fruits are flattened, oval to elliptic silicles 4 to 6 millimetres long, narrowly winged in the upper half and tipped with a persistent style. Native to western and central Europe, including Britain, Ireland, France, Iberia and parts of Scandinavia, the species inhabits dry sandy and rocky places, wall tops, banks, heaths and waste ground.