Narrow-leaved Pepperwort - Lepidium ruderale

Short, scarcely hairy, strong smelling plant, with a single erect stem. Basal leaves pinnately lobed, upper leaves untoothed. Flowers tiny, green, 1 mm and usually petal less. Fruit 2 to 2.5 mm elliptical, deeply notched with narrow wings on hairy stalks.

Small plant, lower leaves pinnate, and upper simple and linear.  Small rounded fruits with wings at apex, notched with a shorter style

General photo of plant in habitat, showing fruits

Originally mainly coastal, increasingly seen inland alongside main roads where it seems to tolerate the winter salting.

May to July.

Annual or biennial.

Fairly frequent now throughout England, scarcer and mainly coastal elsewhere.

Fairly frequent and probably increasing in Leicestershire and Rutland alongside main roads where it is tolerant of winter salting. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 39 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current Checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it is listed as Alien (archaeophyte), occasional