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Spreading yellowcress

Rorippa sinuata

Also called Spread Yellow Cress, West Yellow Cress

Spreading yellowcress
Photo: Joe F. Duft, Public domain

Spreading yellowcress is a perennial wildflower in the cabbage family, native across much of North America, that spreads by stems in moist places. It does best in wet soil beside water, such as lakeshores, riverbanks and meadows.

Family
Brassicaceae (Cabbage family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Keep the soil consistently moist or wet; it tolerates standing water at the margins.
Soil
Moist, fertile loam or silt; tolerates mud.
Temperature
Hardy in temperate climates; tolerates cold winters, exact limits not documented.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Canada to Mexico (Coahuila)
Climate
temperate

About

Rorippa sinuata is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common name spreading yellowcress. It is native to North America, including most all of the western and central United States, where it grows in many types of moist and wet habitat, such as lakeshores and riverbanks, meadows, and mudflats. It is a perennial herb producing spreading stems up to 40 or 50 centimeters long. It is densely hairy, the hairs rounded like sacs or vesicles. The leaves are up to 8 centimeters long and have blades are deeply toothed, lobed, or divided into smaller leaflets. The inflorescence is an elongated raceme occupying the top portion of the stem containing many tiny yellow flowers just a few millimeters long. The fruit is a curved silique which is variable in size and shape but generally contains many minute seeds.

Uses

The Zuni people use an infusion of plant used as a wash and smoke from the blossoms is used for inflamed eyes.

Other Rorippa plants

Lake Watercress · Austrian yellowcress · Creeping yellowcress

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Rorippa sinuata 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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