Narrow-Leaved Pepperwort

Narrow-Leaved Pepperwort, Lepidium ruderale, by the roadside on Croydon Road, Hayes Common, 18 June 2011

This is a plant that grows not far from my home, and I could not identify it. So, I took a few photos with my Ixus 100, and later on, Sue Buckingham, who runs the wildflower course I am attending, knew it straight away. I know I am not going to be that good coming out of the course, but I will be pleased if I know the look of more kinds of plant and have some of the skills needed to refine a rough identification.

This one is a Pepperwort, with tiny flowers turning very quickly into typical strings of seed pods. Sue identified this one by the shape of the lower leaves, and told us that being next to a road was a normal habitat for it. In fact when I looked it up on the web I saw that it is sometimes called Roadside Pepperweed.

The "pepper" in its name comes from its taste. Sue brought in some of a related species last week, the Broad-leaved Pepperwort, and I tasted some of that; it was a bit like watercress, quite hot.