Pepper-grass.Lepidium Virginicum.Birds’ Pepper (Neb.).
Found blooming inconspicuously from June to October, upon barrens and waste fields.
The often branching stalk is leafy above the first branch, though bare below, and grows from 6 to 24 inches in height according to its opportunities; it is slender but of a woody, tough fibre, and smooth; gray-green in color.
The narrow small leaf, with its tapering base, is only occasionally notched, and is of a dusty-green color. The leaves are set on the stalk alternately, and in little groups.
The very tiny unnoticeable flower has 4 thin, white petals, and 2 little stamens; the green calyx is barely visible. The flowers are set on thread stems, in loose, stiff, club-shaped and long clusters.
The most important feature of this plant is the seed; as the bloom moves upward it leaves behind a long stretch of maturing seed-pods, like little flat discs with a tiny notch at the top; a pungent flavor belongs to these pods, which is found acceptable by the cosmopolitan palate of childhood.