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Lepidium campestre
Also called Field cress, Pepperwort, Cream-Anther Field Pepperwort, Field Pepperwort, Field Peppergrass, Bastard Cress, Common Pepperwort
Field pepperweed is a biennial or short-lived annual mustard native to Europe, now a common weed in North America. It grows readily in disturbed ground, with young leaves and seeds used as greens and a peppery spice.
Lepidium campestre, the field pepperwort, field peppercress, field peppergrass, field pepperweed or field cress, is usually a biennial with some form of annual plant in the Brassicaceae or mustard family, native to Europe, but commonly found in North America as an invasive weed. The most notable characteristic of field pepperweed is the raceme of flowers which forks off of the stem. These racemes are made up of first small white flowers and later green, flat and oval seedpods each about 6 mm long and 4 mm wide. Each seedpod contains two brown, 2.5 mm long seeds.
The stem of field pepperweed comes out of a basal rosette of toothed leaves. The stem is covered in leaves, which are sessile, alternate and arrow-shaped. The entire plant is generally between 20 and 60 cm tall and covered in small hairs.
Field pepperweed grows in disturbed land, crops, and waste places. It can tolerate most soils.
The plant is edible. The young leaves can be eaten as greens, added raw to salads or boiled for ten minutes. The young fruits and seeds can be used as a spice, with a taste between black pepper and mustard. The leaves contain protein, vitamin A and vitamin C.
Common pepperweed · Maca · Mountain pepperweed · Shining pepperweed · Cook's scurvy grass · Clasping pepperweed · Featherleaf pepperweed · Garden cress · Virginia pepperweed · Pepperweed
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lepidium campestre by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
