Cardaria draba (Linnaeus) Desvaux

There can be no doubt that the above cited specimen is true C.draba. It appears to be a recent introduction in our area. Careful collection may now reveal its wider occurrence in W. Pakistan also. The seeds have spicy flavour and may be used as a substitute for pepper.

Perennial, 20-60 (-80) cm tall, erect, branched mostly from the base, usually hairy with short appressed simple or forked hairs. Lower leaves 3-10 cm long, 1-4 cm broad, obovate-spathulate, stalked, sinuately toothed; upper leaves 1-5 (-8) cm long, 1-3 cm broad, oblong-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, amplexicaul, toothed, rarely entire, sessile. Racemes 25-50-flowered, corymbose, up to 10 cm long in fruit, ebracteate. Flowers c. 5 mm across, white; pedicel up to 10 mm long in fruit, filiform, spreading. Sepals c. 2 mm long, oblong. Petals about twice as long as the sepals, spathulate, clawed with subemarginate apex. Stamens 6, c. 2:3 mm long with minute anthers. Siliculae ovate, ± cordate, 4-5 mm long, 3.5-4.5 mm broad (excl. c. 1.5 mm long style); valves keeled, reticulately veined, glabrous; septum c.l mm broad; seed c. 2 mm long, ovoid or ellipsoid.

Herbs perennial, (8-)20-65(-90) cm tall, pubescent with mostly curved simple trichomes, sometimes glabrous or subglabrous at least above. Stems erect or decumbent basally, many branched above. Basal leaves withered by anthesis, petiolate; leaf blade obovate, spatulate, or ovate, (1.5-)3-10(-15) × 1-4 cm, margin sinuate-dentate, apex obtuse. Cauline leaves sessile; leaf blade ovate, elliptic, oblong, or lanceolate, oblanceolate, or obovate, (1-)3-9(-15) × (0.5-)1-2(-5) cm, pubescent or glabrous, base sagittate-amplexicaul or auriculate, margin dentate or entire, apex acute or acuminate. Fruiting pedicels 5-10(-15) mm, divaricate or ascending, slender. Sepals oblong, 1.5-2.5 mm, glabrous, margin white. Petals white, obovate, (2.5-)3-4(-4.5) × (1-)1.3-2(-2.2) mm, shortly clawed, apex rounded. Filaments 2-3 mm; anthers ovate, 0.4-0.5 mm. Fruit cordate, ovoid, or subglobose, (2.5-)3.5-6(-7) mm, base cordate, rounded, obtuse, or truncate, apex obtuse or acute; valves flattened or somewhat inflated, carinate, reticulate or not, glabrous or sparsely minutely pubescent when young; style (0.7-)1-1.8(-2) mm. Seeds dark brown, ovoid, 1.5-2 × 1-1.2 mm. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Aug.

Distribution: Chiefly European species, now widely spread in C. and W. Asia, introduced elsewhere.

Gansu, Liaoning, Shandong, Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia, Europe; naturalized in S Africa, Australia, and North and South America].

Fl.Per.: April-July.

Mountain slopes, roadsides, fields, agricultural lands, river banks, pastures, waste areas; near sea level to 4200 m.