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Cardamine hirsuta
Also called Hairy bitter-cress, Bittercress, Common Bittercress, Hoary Bittercress, Flickweed, Shotweed
Hairy bittercress is a small annual or biennial weed in the cabbage family, common in moist, disturbed soil worldwide. It is grown mainly as a weed, and its leaves can be eaten as a peppery salad green.
Cardamine hirsuta, commonly called hairy bittercress, popping cress, common bittercress, hoary bittercress, hairy wood-cress, small bittercress, pepperweed, shotweed, or snapweed, is an annual or biennial species of plant in the family Brassicaceae, and is edible as a salad green. It is common in moist areas around the world.
It is commonly found in damp, recently disturbed soil, open ground, turf and waste places and native to Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, North Africa, Central Africa, and the Horn of Africa.
The leaves, flowers, and seedpods are edible raw or cooked, and are said to have a mild peppery taste. In Georgia and Eastern Europe, the leaves are used for salad, while seeds are a good substitute for mustard.
Brewer's bittercress · Crinkleroot · Chinese Ivy · Little western bittercress · Pennsylvania bittercress · Five Leaflet Bitter Cress · Whorled Coralroot · Trefoil Cress
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cardamine hirsuta by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
