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Lepidium draba. Synonym: Cardaria draba. (Whitetop). Brassicaceae (Mustard Family) Foothills. Fields, lawns, roadsides, disturbed areas.
Spring, summer. Lepidium draba is an invasive species that spreads from roots to cover acres of pasture land. The plant grows from 8-24 inches tall and is topped by dozens of white flowers that produce scores of seeds. The plant is a serious agricultural weed and is on the exterminate list in many states. Linnaeus named the Lepidium genus in 1753 and he also named this species. "Lepidion" is Greek for "little scale" and refers to a scale on the seed pod. "Draba", Greek for "acrid", was a name applied to similar Mustards known to the Greeks thousands of years ago. The Draba genus is large and identifying species is often difficult, but worth the effort and quite botanically educational.. The Cardaria genus was named by Desvaux. The Greek "card' means "heart" which refers to the heart-shaped seed pods of Cardaria draba. Michael Charter points out on his CalFlora Names web site, that the "-ensis" ending is a Latin adjectival suffix usually used to indicate the country of origin. In this case there are two possible places: (1) Aleppo, Alep, or Haleb, a city in northwestern Syria. Allepo is also referred to in the form aleppica, aleppicum, aleppicus, and halepensis (2) Halepa, in Greek: Khalepa, a city in Greece on the island of Crete near Canea. |
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Lepidium draba. Synonym: Cardaria draba. (Whitetop). Foothills. Fields, lawns, roadsides, disturbed areas.
Spring, summer. Flowers are in dense, showy heads and are followed many days later by glabrous (smooth, not hairy) seed pods. |
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Lepidium draba. Synonym: Cardaria draba. (Whitetop). Foothills. Fields, lawns, roadsides, disturbed areas.
Spring, summer. Leaves are up to 4 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Basal leaves have a petiole but all other leaves clasp the stem. Basal leaves begin withering as flowers open. |
Range map © John Kartesz,
County Color Key
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Range map for Lepidium draba |