Perennial Pepperweed, Broadleaved Pepperweed

Lepidium latifolium L.

Brassicaceae - The Mustard Family

▲▼ mature flowering plants in Wyoming (above) and New Mexico (below)

▲ mature plant showing growth from older clump after mowing

▲▼ flowers

▲ inflorescence with silicles (seed pods)

▲▼  new shoots emerging from creeping roots

▲ very large, semi-woody creeping root (New Mexico)

▲ seedlings

Perennial Pepperweed:

·         a creeping perennial weed that can produce deep and thick creeping roots

·         produces clumped colonies of clusters of stems that arise from creeping roots

·         leaves are oval to oval-lanceolate, with pointed tips and hairless without petioles

·         produces terminal panicles of showy white flowers, followed by tan silicles

·         prefers moist, well-drained soils—often found along waterways, stream and river banks, ponds

·         more common west of Missouri, but has been found along Missouri River in several locations

·         very difficult to control once established