Lepidium ruderale was recorded in FRPS from Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, and Shandong. The present authors have seen no material from these provinces, and it is likely that these records are based on misidentified plants of L. apetalum. The former is a fetid plant, puberulent with slender trichomes, with basal leaves (1 or)2- or 3-pinnatisect, cauline leaves nonauriculate, and fruiting pedicels terete, puberulent all around with slender trichomes. By contrast, L. apetalum is a nonfetid plant, puberulent with capitate or clavate trichomes, with basal leaves pinnatifid, cauline leaves often subauriculate, and fruiting pedicels slightly flattened or obscurely winged, puberulent almost always only adaxially.