Lepidium menziesii de Candolle, Syst. Nat. 2: 539. 1821; L. bernardinum Abrams; L. californicum Nuttall; L. glaucum Greene; L. hirsutum Rydberg; L. idahoense A. Heller; L. intermedium var. pubescens Greene; L. medium Greene; L. medium var. pubescens (Greene) B. L. Robinson; L. occidentale Howell; L. robinsonii Thellung; L. simile A. Heller; L. virginicum var. californicum Jepson; L. virginicum var. medium (Greene) C. L. Hitchcock; L. virginicum var. menziesii (de Candolle) C. L. Hitchcock; L. virginicum var. pubescens (Greene) Thellung; L. virginicum var. robinsonii (Thellung) C. L. Hitchcock

Fruiting pedicels flattened (at least proximal to apex), (0.2-)0.3-0.4 mm wide. Fruit valves glabrous or puberulent. Cotyledons incumbent or obliquely so. 2n = 32.

Flowering Mar-Jun. Roadsides, bottomlands, gravelly and sandy shores, waste grounds, stream banks, grassy meadows, dry flats and stream beds, abandoned fields, woods, cliffs, plains, pastures, sagebrush and other desert shrub communities, dry mountain slopes; 700-2600 m; B.C.; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., N.Mex., Oreg., Tex., Utah, Wash., Wyo.; Mexico.