Description

Garden cress, Lepidium sativum, is an herbaceous annual in the family Brassicaceae grown for its edible shoots and leaves which are grown as a salad green. Garden cress is a fast growing plant with many branches and narrow, oval leaves. The plant produces small pink to white flower which are 2 mm (1/12 in) in diameter and form a highly clustered inflorescence. It can reach a height of 60 cm (23.6 in) and although classed as an annual it can behave as a perennial as it may drop seeds before harvest that will grow the next year. Garden cress may also be referred to as pepper cress or Persian broadleaf cress and it originates from Persia (Iran).