Field Pepperwort - Lepidium campestre

Description

The white flowers are small and numerous in dense, terminal racemes. There are 2, 4 or 6 stamens. The fruit is a silicula, laterally compressed. The valves have a wing or keel. Upper stem leaves are numerous, and arrow shaped often toothed.

Similar Species

Lepidium heterophyllum

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

Oval/rounded oblong fruits with apical wings to which the style is fused; style shorter than or equal to notch at apex of fruit; lower and middle leaves entire or slightly lobed

Recording advice

Either obtain confirmation from a County Recorder before submitting a record, or submit detailed images showing key features.  We recommend that you take and retain a specimen; the County Recorder may wish to see this for confirmation. (RPR)

Habitat

Cultivated land, grassland, roadsides, walls and wasteland.

When to see it

May to August.

Life History

Annual, biennial and perennial herbs.

UK Status

England Red List: Near Threatened

VC55 Status

In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi & Evans, 1988) it was found in 10 of the 617 tetrads, but not recorded in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971).

In the current Checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it is listed as Alien (archaeophyte); rare.  

It is on the local VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall & Woodward, 2022) as Locally Scarce

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Common Pepperwort, Field Pepperwort
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Brassicales
Family:
Brassicaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
9
First record:
13/05/2011 (Calow, Graham)
Last record:
18/05/2024 (Alton, John)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

The latest images and records displayed below include those awaiting verification checks so we cannot guarantee that every identification is correct. Once accepted, the record displays a green tick.

In the Latest Records section, click on the header to sort A-Z, and again to sort Z-A. Use the header boxes to filter the list.

Latest images

Latest records