Swinecress, Lesser Swinecress

Coronopus didymus (L.) Sm.

Brassicaceae (Mustard Family)

▲▼ mature, flowering plants

▲▼ mature flowering plants

▲ flowering portion of plant

▲▼ fruits on stem

Lesser Swinecress, Swinecress:  

·         cool-season annual or biennial, with small rosette of deeply-divided, feather-like leaves

·         stems sprawl out more laterally than upright from the rosette, growing about 4-12” tall and equally wide or wider

·         leaves have strong odor if bruised/crushed/mowed

·         flowers are small, greenish –white, in axillary racemes

·         fruits appear as a pair of slightly- flattened, globe-like pods (siliques) joined together, forming a notch at the tip of the fruit

·         more common in southern U.S.

·         found in lawns, roadsides, vegetable crops, cool-season crops, disturbed sites