Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Lepidium ginninderrense

Stem with seed cases below, flowers above. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Flowers and seed cases. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Plants. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Common name

 Ginninderra Peppercress

Family

Brassicaceae

Where found

Grassland. ACT.

Notes

Perennial herb to 0.2 m high. Leaves fleshy. Stems grooved, rough, moderately warty. Leaves basal and alternating up the stems, rather thick and fleshy. Basal leaves 1.5-5.5 cm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, entire or with 1-2 short lobes, hairless, tapering gradually to a stalk about 1 mm wide which is markedly stippled with purple and expanded into a partly stem-sheathing base. Lower stem leaves 1.5-3.5 cm long, 15-20 mm wide, deeply dissected with 1-3 pairs of narrow lobes, margins entire or with one tooth,, the margins and lower surface sparsely warty, particularly on the midrib. Upper stem leaves 0.7-2.5 cm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, entire or with 1-2 short narrow lobes, the margins and lower surface sparsely warty, particularly on the midrib. Leaf stalks of all stem leaves short to more or less absent, stippled with purple, the bases scarcely expanded. Flowers small, about 1.5 mm long, 2 mm wide, with 4 green to brownish sepals and 0 petals. Flowers in an elongated cluster to about 15 cm long. Seed cases bluntly oval, sparsely warty, 4-5 mm long, 3-3.5 mm wide, broadly winged in the upper half, tips notched. (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see.) 

Vulnerable Australia.

Endangered ACT. All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

Description based on:  Scarlett, N.H. (2001), Lepidium ginninderrense (Brassicaceae), a new species from the Australian Capital Territory. Muelleria 15: 69-73, Figs 1-3