Lepidium cartilagineum (J. Mayer) Thell.

It is doubtful if the size of plant with leaf variations would help in separating infra specific ranks. However, our plants belong to the type race, cartilagineum.

Perennial, up to 30 cm tall, erect to spreading or ascending, ± hairy with simple short hairs; rootstock branched, densely covered with ± sheathing bases of the radical leaves. Radical leaves densely rosulate, long petioled, ovate or elliptic, 3-7 cm long, 1-2.5 cm broad, including 1.5-3 cm long petiole, entire or obscurely distantly toothed; cauline leaves lanceolate, elliptic-ovate to linear-lanceolate, 1-4.5 cm long, 0.3-1.5 cm broad, sessile, usually semiamplexicaul, entire or obscurely toothed; all leaves fleshy, ± glabrous, acute to subobtuse. Racemes 15-30-flowered, ebracteate, up to 7(-10) cm long in fruit. Flowers c. 3 mm across, white; pedicel up to 5 mm long in fruit, filiform. Sepals c.1 mm long, 0.6 mm broad, oblong, obtuse. Petals c. 2 mm long, 1 mm broad, spathulate with rounded apex. Stamens 6, c. 1 : 1.3 mm long, with minute anthers. Siliculae c. 3 mm long, 3.5 mm broad, ovate-elliptic, obscurely notched at the apex with subsessile, short, capitate stigma, hardly within the notch; valves glabrous, often conspicuously reticulate-veined; septum c. 0.5 mm broad; seed c. 1 mm long, ovate-elliptic, reddish-brown.

Herbs perennial, (10-)15-35(-40) cm tall, puberulent with papillate or curved trichomes; caudex with fibrous petiolar remains of previous years. Stems erect, branched. Basal leaves rosulate, fleshy, persistent; petiole 1.5-5(-7) cm; leaf blade ovate, oblong, or elliptic, (0.7-)1.7-4(-5) × (0.5-)0.8-1.5(-2.2) cm, usually glabrous, base cuneate or attenuate, margin entire, apex acute or obtuse. Cauline leaves sessile; leaf blade elliptic, oblong, or lanceolate, 0.2-4.7 cm × 1-9 mm, glabrous or with subappressed trichomes, base usually amplexicaul, margin entire, apex acute. Fruiting pedicels divaricate, straight or slightly curved, 3-6 mm, puberulent adaxially. Sepals oblong, 1-1.2 × ca. 0.5 mm, pilose with crisped trichomes, white at margin and apex, apex acute. Petals white, obovate or oblanceolate, 1-1.6 × 0.3-0.8 mm, apex rounded; claw obscurely differentiated. Stamens 6; filaments 0.8-1.1 mm; anthers oblong, 0.2-0.3 mm. Fruit ovate, 2.3-3.3 × 2.1-2.7 mm; valves glabrous, prominently reticulate veined; wing 0.1-0.2 mm; apical notch 0.05-0.2 mm; style 0.2-0.4 mm, exserted from apical notch. Seeds brown to reddish brown, ovate, 1.3-1.7 × 0.7-1 mm, papillate; cotyledons incumbent. Fl. Aug. 2n = 16.

Distribution: S.E. Europe, Russia, C. & W. Asia to W. Pakistan.

Nei Mongol, Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia, C and S Europe].

Fl. Per.: April-June.

Saline lowlands or steppe; 400-1000 m.

Thlaspi cartilagineum J. Mayer, Abh. Böhm. Ges. Wiss. 235. 1786; Lepidium cartilagineum subsp. crassifolium (Waldstein & Kitaibel) Thellung; L. crassifolium Waldstein & Kitaibel; L. kabulicum K. H. Rechinger.