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Cardamine impatiens
Also called Narrow-leaved Bittercress, Narrow-leaved bitter-cress, Narrow Leaf Bittercress, Bushy Bittercress, Touch Me Not Bittercress
Narrowleaf bittercress is a slender, biennial or short-lived annual herb in the cabbage family, native to temperate Eurasia. It grows readily in shady, disturbed ground and sets seed that is flung out of the pods when they dry.
Cardamine impatiens, the narrowleaf bittercress or narrow-leaved bitter-cress, is a plant species in the genus Cardamine of the family Brassicaceae. It is a slender, biennial herb, that produces sterile leaves in the first year, one to several flowering stems during the next. Its leaves are pinnate with several pairs of lanceolate, dentate leaflets and a terminal, slightly longer leaflet. The short petals surpass the calyx by half of its length. The seeds are arranged in one row on each side of the central membrane of the narrow pod and are ejected out in a shower due to the tension formed as the seed pod (silique) dries. It grows on walls, open ground in shady places in forests usually disturbed by human activity.
It is native to temperate Eurasia, ranging from Ireland and Spain to the Russian Far East.
Large Bitter Cress · Seaside bittercress · Slender toothwort · Cardamine barbaraeoides · Alpine bittercress · Brewer's bittercress · Coralroot bittercress · Bulbous bittercress · Milkmaids · Cardamine carrii · Cutleaf toothwort · Constance's bittercress
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cardamine impatiens 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.
