Shepherd's Cress - Teesdalia nudicaulis

Teesdalia nudicaulis has ascending stems up to 25 cm and small white asymmetrical flowers, with the outer petals approximately twice as long and inner petals. Fruits are compressed, spoon-shaped, have very narrow marginal wings. They are held on patent pedicels 2 to 6 mm long and have a small notch at the apex and a miniscule style. There is a small basal rosette of leaves.

It is a rare plant in VC55 although it is abundant in a small area and well-recorded in its Swithland Wood location. If you think you have found it in a new location, do not take a specimen, but take a series of good field photos and submit to NatureSpot or inform the County Recorder as soon you can. (RPR)

Open areas.  It is a plant of free-draining, bare or disturbed ground on shallow acidic sandy and gravelly soils.

Flowers from March to July.

A winter-annual. 

Widespread but localised in much of Britain and declining in England.  It is sometimes coastal and is more frequent in Wales.

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland with recent records from one site, where it is locally abundant over a small area.

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Rare (i.e. present in less than 3 sites)