Flora of New Zealand Series

wart cress

Foetid annual or biennial with short-lived rosette and procumbent glabrous or papillate stems to 40 cm long. Lvs 1-2-pinnatifid, narrow-oblong to ovate, glabrous or papillate, (1.5)-3-8 × (0.5)-1.5-3 cm. Racemes 1-2-(3) cm long; rachis glabrous or papillate; pedicels spreading, 1-1.5 mm long. Sepals c. 1 mm long. Petals white, slightly > sepals. Stamens usually 6. Silicle broader than long, apiculate, subacute, cordate at base, 2-3 × 3-4 mm; valves coarsely warty, not separating at maturity, corky; stigma small; style conic, 0.25 mm long. Seed comma-shaped, light brown, c. 1.5 mm long.

N.; S.: throughout, seemingly commonest E. of main ranges.

Europe, Asia Minor 1869

Waste land, arable land, gardens, pasture, roadsides, river beds and coastal shingle.

This sp. has also been known in N.Z. as C. procumbens, as Senebiera pinnatifida and as S. coronopus.