Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Lepidium hyssopifolium
Common name
Aromatic peppercress, Basalt peppercress, Peppercress
Family
Brassicaceae
Where found
Woodland, grassland, gardens, and disturbed sites. ACT and tablelands. Liverpool to Tahmoor. Occasionally elsewhere.
Notes
Perennial herb to 0.50 m tall, finely bristly or hairless. Leaves basal and alternating up the stems, bases sometimes auriculate. Basal leaves to 10 cm long, fern-like and deeply dissected with linear lobes, or the margins toothed. Stem leaves alternating up the stems, to 4 cm long, 1–2.5 mm wide, becoming smaller up the stems, margins toothed or entire. Flowers greenish, small, with 4 sepals 0.5–0.8 mm long and 4 tiny petals or 0 petals. Flowers in an unbranched cluster which elongates in seed. Flowers mostly summer–autumn. Seed cases oval to narrow-elliptic, sometimes hairy, 2–5 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide, with narrow wings in the upper half, and a small notch at the tips. (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see.) Stalks of seed cases hairy, 2–5 mm long, spreading.
Endangered Australia. Endangered NSW. Provisions of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 No 63 relating to the protection of protected plants generally also apply to plants that are a threatened species.
Endangered Vic. Listed in the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act Vic.
NSW Threatened Species profile with photos: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=10462 (accessed 6 January, 2021)
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Lepidium~hyssopifolium (accessed 6 January, 2021)
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