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Pennsylvania bittercress

Cardamine pensylvanica

Pennsylvania bittercress
Photo: Robert H. Mohlenbrock. USDA SCS. 1989. Midwest wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species. Midwest N, Public domain

Pennsylvania bittercress is a small, native North American wildflower, a biennial in the cabbage family that often appears as a weed in moist soil. It grows best in cool, damp conditions and is easy to find in disturbed, wet ground.

Family
Brassicaceae (Cabbage family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Part shade, Full sun
Water
Keep soil consistently moist, especially on riverbanks or wet ground.
Soil
Moist, fertile loam or mud.
Temperature
Hardy in cool temperate and subarctic climates; prefers cool conditions and tolerates frost.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Subarctic America to U.S.A., Bahamas
Climate
temperate

About

Cardamine pensylvanica is a species of Cardamine known by the common name Pennsylvania bittercress. It is native to most of Canada and the United States from coast to coast.

Where it grows

It is generally found in moist to wet areas, such as the mud on riverbanks. It is a biennial herb producing one or more erect or leaning, branching stems which are purple to green in color and grow 10–70 cm (4–28 in) tall. The leaves are hairless and divided into several rounded to oval lobes, each of which has one or two lobes, with the exception of the large terminal leaflet at the tip, which generally has three. Most of the leaves are located along the stem and there is no basal rosette. The inflorescence comprises many flowers, each with four white petals a few millimeters long, blossoming from April to October. The fruit is a slender silique 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) long.

Other Cardamine plants

Brewer's bittercress · Crinkleroot · Hairy bittercress · Chinese Ivy · Little western bittercress · Five Leaflet Bitter Cress · Whorled Coralroot · Trefoil Cress

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cardamine pensylvanica 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.

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