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Lepidium oleraceum
Cook's scurvy grass is a coastal herb native to New Zealand and its offshore islands, and it is not commonly grown as a garden plant. It thrives in full sun and salty, well-drained sites near the sea.
Lepidium oleraceum is a herb in the family Brassicaceae, endemic to New Zealand. Its English common name is Cook's scurvy grass; Māori names include nau, ngau, naunau and heketara.
Its specific epithet oleraceum means "vegetable/herbal" in Latin and is a form of holeraceus (oleraceus).
In New Zealand it is native to coastal areas of the North and South Islands, Stewart Island, the Three Kings Islands, the Snares Islands, the Chatham Islands, the Auckland Islands, the Antipodes Islands and the Bounty Islands.
Young leaves may be eaten raw or cooked. They have a hot cress-like taste and are a rich source of vitamin C.
Field pepperweed · Common pepperweed · Maca · Mountain pepperweed · Shining pepperweed · Clasping pepperweed · Featherleaf pepperweed · Garden cress · Virginia pepperweed · Pepperweed
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lepidium oleraceum 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.
