Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Brassicales Bromhead
Family
Cruciferae
Genus
Lepidium L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Lepidium naufragorum Garn.-Jones & D.A.Norton, New Zealand J. Bot. 33: 43-47 (1995)
Synonymy:
Holotype: New Zealand: Open Bay Islands, Taumaka, 15 February 1992, P.J. Garnock-Jones 2121, D.A. Norton & D.R. Given, CHR 470212!
Etymology:
The epithet 'naufragorum', the genitive plural form of 'naufragus' meaning a 'castaway or ship wrecked person', was given by Garnock-Jones and Norton (1995) to commemorate a sealing gang that was set down on the type locality of the species, the Open Bay Islands, in 1810 where they were left for four years until they were rescued.
 Description

Perennial herb. Stems ascending to erect, 15-30(-45) cm long, glabrous. Leaves glabrous, fleshy, bright grass-green. Basal and lower stem leaves withering at fruiting, pinnatifid, narrow-oblong to narrow-oblanceolate, 6-12 × 1.5-2.5 cm; pinnae in 3-7 pairs, sharply toothed at apex and distal margins. Middle stem leaves similar, or becoming shallowly pinnatifid, sharply serrate. Upper stem leaves narrow-obovate to linear-oblanceolate, pinnatifid to simple, sharply toothed at apex and at apex of pinnae if present, cuneate at base, 10-30(-50) × 2-6(-10) mm. Racemes 30-70(-100) mm long, terminal and axillary; rachis glabrous or sparsely hairy; pedicels sparsely hairy, erecto-patent, 3-5 mm long at fruiting. Flowers c. 3 mm diameter. Sepals glabrous or sparsely hairy, often some glabrous and some hairy within one flower, green with scarious margins, c. 1 × 1 mm. Petals white, slightly longer than sepals, spreading, clawed; limb obovate, emarginate. Stamens 4, equal. Nectaries 4, subulate, c. 0.25 mm long; nectar copious. Siliques* broadly elliptic, 2.8- 4.0 × 2.3-3.2 mm; style 0.1-0.2 mm long, free from the narrow wing, equal or exceeding the shallow notch; stigma 0.4 mm diam.; valves glabrous. Seed obovoid, orange-brown, not winged, 1.7-2 mm long, mucilaginous when wet. FL Oct-Mar, FR Nov-Apr. *We use the term silique in preference to silicle since the distinction between the two terms is artificial.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 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 Vulnerable]
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 Vulnerable]
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.