Seasonal Wild Flowers

Hoary Cress

Lepidium draba

Brassicaceae

April to July

It is scattered throughout the country, but is found mostly

in the South and East.

See the BSBI distribution map for Hoary Cress

It is a neophyte which was introduced in the early

nineteenth century and spread out from the docks.

It grows on brownfield sites, waste ground, dunes

and saltmarshes, and alongside roads and railways.

Hoary Cress is the UK's commonest pepperwort.

It is a rhizomatous, perennial herb growing up to 90cm.

Flowers are in clusters and typically crucifer, with 4 white

petals and a prominent style and stigma.

The seed pods are like kidney-shaped bottles.

The leaves are greyish, lanceolate, variously toothed and

the upper ones clasp the stem.

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Hoary Cress by the Lune estuary, Lancaster

Flower cluster

Close-up of 4-petalled flowers

Fruiting spikes

Kidney-shaped pods

Upper leaves

Lower leaves