Lepidium ruderale

Narrow Leaved Peppergrass, Rroadside pepperweed

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Description

Lepidium ruderale is a ANNUAL/BIENNIAL growing to 0.3 m (1ft). It is not frost tender. It is in flower from May to July. The species is hermaphrodite (has both male and female organs). The plant is self-fertile. Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. Suitable pH: mildly acid, neutral and basic (mildly alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It prefers moist soil.

Edible Uses

Young leaves - raw or cooked. A hot cress-like flavour.

Medicinal Uses

Hypotensive Skin. The plant is used in the treatment of impetigo. An aqueous extract of the herb causes a drop in blood pressure and depresses respiration.

Distribution

Europe, including Britain, from Scandanavia south and east to the Mediterranean and southwest Asia.

Where It Grows

TEMPERATE ASIA: Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Israel (introd.?), Turkey, Russian Federation-Ciscaucasia (Ciscaucasia), Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russian Federation (Dagestan), Russian Federation (Buryatia, Yakutia-Sakha, Altay, Krasnoyarsk (south), Irkutsk, Kemerovskaja oblast, Kurganskaja oblast, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tomsk, Tyumen (south)), Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, China (Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu) TROPICAL ASIA: India (Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu) EUROPE: Denmark, Finland (south), Norway (south), Sweden (south), Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Russian Federation (European part), Belarus, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Ukraine (incl. Krym), Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, France