shepherd's cress

Appearance

General: Glabrous, annual herbs, the stems single, simple or freely-branched from the base, 5-25 cm. tall.
Leaves: Leaves mostly in a basal rosette, 1.5-5 cm. long, slender-petiolate, the blades oval to oblanceolate or obovate, entire to lyrate-pinnatifid.
Flowers: Inflorescence a terminal, bractless raceme, the stem scapose or with 1-several bract-like, entire to deeply-lobed leaves; pedicles slender, divergent, 4-8 mm. long; sepals 4, not saccate, often purple-tinged, about 0.5 mm. long; petals 4, white, 1 mm. long; stamens 6, the filaments with broad, scale-like, whitish, basal appendages; style lacking.
Fruits: Silicles strongly obcompressed, oblong-obovate, 3-3.5 mm. long and nearly as wide, the valves keeled and slightly winged above; seeds 2 in each cell.

Naming

Iberis nudicaulis

Distribution

Introduced from Europe, west of the Cascades in Washington; British Columbia south to California and in northeastern U.S.

Habitat

Sandy or gravelly soil at low elevations.