Flora of New Zealand Series

twin cress

Foetid annual or biennial with short-lived rosette and procumbent to ascending glabrous or sparsely hairy stems to 40 cm long. Lvs 1-2-pinnatifid, narrow-oblong to ovate, glabrous except for sparse spreading hairs on petioles of some basal lvs; rosette lvs petiolate, 6-10 ×1.5-2 cm; stem lvs smaller, usually pinnatifid, rarely 2-pinnatifid, 1-4 × 0.5-1.5 cm. Racemes (1)-3-5 cm; rachis with sparse spreading hairs; pedicels spreading, 2.5-4 mm long. Sepals c. 0.5 mm long. Petals white, < sepals or 0. Stamens usually 2, rarely 4. Silicle broader than long, emarginate, c. 1.5 × 2-2.5 mm; valves finely warty or ridged, separating at maturity; stigma minute, almost sessile in apical notch of silicle. Seed comma-shaped, light brown, c. 1 mm long.

N.; S.; St.; K., Ch., A., C.

Europe 1855

Waste land, roadsides, cultivated land, coastal shingly land.

This sp. has also been referred to in N.Z. as Senebiera didyma and as Lepidium didymum.