Lepidium capitatum

Annual or biennial herbs, glabrous or sparsely pubescent with simple or branched capitate hairs, about 10-30 cm tall, not scapose. Rootstocks slender, taproot. Stem erect, ascending, leafy, profusely branched from the base, also above, densely pubescent with grandular capitate hairs. Basal radical leaves simple, rosulate or not, tubercled, oblong-lanceolate to spathulate, about 3-6 x 1-2 cm across, base attenuate, margins deeply pinnatifid, lobes acute, apex acute to subacute, glabrous or sparsely minutely capitate hairy on margins and midrib beneath, petiole about 0.5-3.5 cm long, cauline leaves gradually smaller towards the shoot, oblong-lanceolate, margins coarsely laciniate denticulate becoming entire towards shoot, apex acute to subobtuse, petiole short to subsessile towards the shoot. Inflorescence compact racemes forming a capitulum, both terminal and axillary, many flowered, slightly elongated in fruit, minutely capitate hairy, ebracteate. Flowers bisexual, cream white, pedicel slightly curved or erect, divaricate, slender, ascending, minutely capitate hairy above, about 2-5 mm long, sepals 4, ovate-oblong, caducous, usually deciduous, margins white, lateral pair base not saccate, apex obtuse, glabrous, about 0.8 x 0.4 mm long, petals 4, broader and shorter than sepals, broadly-obovate, base narrowed, margins entire, apex subemarginate or subtruncate, about 0.6-1 x 0.2-0.4 mm across. Stamens 4, about 1 mm long, 2 lateral stamens rudimentary or absent, filaments not dilated near the base, anthers ovate about 0.1-0.2 mm long. Ovary superior, sessile, ellipsoid-cylindrical, bicarpellary, ovules 2. Fruit silicula, dehiscent, broadly ovate, terete, angustiseptate, about 2-2.5 x 1.75-2 mm across, compressed, keeled or rounded at the back, apex notched and narrowly winged, glabrous or puberulent, replum rounded, septum complete, style obsolete, stigma included with the apical notch. Seeds 2, each in a locule, pale brown, slightly compressed or flattened, ovate-oblong, winged, about 1-1.2 x 0.7 mm across, smooth minutely reticulate, nicely mucilaginous when soaked, and cotyledons incumbent.

ID Request- Herb at Pangong Lake -Ladakh – July- PKA-09 : 6 posts by 2 authors. Attachments (5)

… indicated that this plant could be “Lepidium capitatum Hook. f. & Thomson”…(family: Brassicaceae)..

References:

The Plant List Ver.1.1
 Tropicos  IPNI  GBIF  BSI Flora of India  Flora of China  FOC illustration  Flora of Pakistan  FOP illustration Annotated checklist of Flowering plants of Nepal  India Biodiversity Portal Bhutan Biodiversity Portal  Flora of Nepal – On-line accounts