Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Brassicales Bromhead
Family
Cruciferae
Genus
Lepidium L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Lepidium flexicaule Kirk, Trans. New Zealand Inst. 14: 380 (1882)
Synonymy:
Lectotype: New Zealand (North Island) (fide Garnock-Jones and Norton 1995): Onehunga, n.d. T.Kirk 341 WELT SP030080! Isolectotypes: WELT SP030089!, WELT SP027620!
  • = Lepidium incisium Banks & Sol. ex Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 15 (1853) nom. illeg.
  • ≡ Nasturtium neozelandicum Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 2, 937 (1891) nom. nov. pro Lepidium incisium Banks & Sol. ex Hook.f. 1853
Lectotype: New Zealand (North Island) (fide Garnock-Jones and Norton 1995): Opuraga, on Beach, rare, n.d., Banks and Solander, BM! Isolectotypes: AK 100095!, WELT SP063696a, b!
Etymology:
The exact meaning of the species 'flexicaule' was not given by Kirk (1899) but the translation 'flexuous stems' accurately characterises the plant.
 Description

Perennial herb. Stems prostrate to decumbent, 10- 25(-40) cm long, finely puberulent with short papillate or tapered hairs. Leaves fleshy, dull green. Basal and lower cauline leaves withering at fruiting, glabrous above, with papillae or denticles along midrib beneath and margins, pinnatifid, obovate to oblanceolate, 5-7 × 1.5-2.5 cm; pinnae in 1-3 pairs, bluntly toothed or crenate at apex and distal margins. Cauline leaves obovate, oblanceolate, or spathulate, bluntly toothed to crenate distally, cuneate at base, 10-25(-30) × 5-10 mm, with triangular denticles dense on margins and sparse to dense beneath, glabrous above. Racemes 15-40(-50) mm long, terminal and leaf-opposed; rachis and pedicels puberulent with short tapering hairs, or glabrous; pedicels erecto-patent, 3-4 mm long at fruiting. Flowers c. 2 mm diameter. Sepals glabrous or sparsely hairy, green with scarious margins, c. 1 × 1 mm. Petals white, about equalling sepals, erect, not clawed, narrow-obovate to narrow-oblong, entire and rounded at apex. Stamens 2. Nectaries 4, very small; nectar slight. Siliques broadly elliptic to broadly ovate, (3.2-)3.5-3.8 × 2.2-2.5(-2.8) mm; style 0.1- 0.2 mm long, free from the narrow rounded wing, shorter than the notch; stigma 0.3 mm diam.; valves glabrous. Seed broadly obovoid, brown, not winged, 1.6-2 mm, mucilaginous when wet. FL Oct-Jan, FR Dec-Apr.

[Reproduced from Garnock-Jones & Norton (1995, New Zealand J. Bot. 33: 43–51) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
 Phenology

Flowering: Nov.–Jan.–(Mar.); Fruiting: Dec.–Mar.–(May)

 Bibliography
de Lange, P.J.; Heenan, P.B.; Houliston, G.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Mitchell, A.D. 2013: New Lepidium (Brassicaceae) from New Zealand. PhytoKeys 24: 1–147.
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Hitchmough, R.; Townsend, A.J. 2009: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand (2008 revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 47: 61–96. [Nationally Vulnerable]
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Heenan, P.B.; Courtney, S.P.; Molloy, B.P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D. 2004: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(1): 45–76.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Nationally Endangered]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Nationally Endangered]
Garnock-Jones, P.J.; Norton, D. A. 1995: Lepidium naufragorum (Brassicaceae), a new species from Westland, and notes on other New Zealand coastal species of Lepidium. New Zealand Journal of Botany 33(1): 43–51.
Hooker, J.D. 1852–1853 ("1853"): The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part I. Flowering plants. Lovell Reeve, London.
Kirk, T. 1882: A revision of the New Zealand Lepidia, with descriptions of new species. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 14: 379–382.
Kuntze, C.E.O. 1891: Revisio Generum Plantarum. Vol. 2. Arthur Felix, Leipzig.