Cardamine bulbosa (Schreb. ex Muhl.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.

Bulbous Bittercress; Spring Cress

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Spring Cress is a native perennial in the Mustard family (Brassicaceae). It can be found throughout all of Alabama except the southern-most counties. Spring Cress occurs in swamp forests, alluvial woods, along streams and rivers, in wet pastures, on wet roadsides and in wet roadside ditches, and in seeps. It is a perennial from a rhizome. Basal leaves are reniform to ovate in outline, petiolate (with petioles much longer than the blades), with entire, undulate, or shallowly dentate margins. Stems are green and 1-1 ½ feet tall. The stems are glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Stem leaves are alternate, sessile or with short petioles, oblong to lanceolate in outline, with entire or dentate margins. Flowers are produced in racemes at the apex of the stems. Flower open from the base to the apex of the raceme. Young fruit are often present on the lower portion of the raceme while flowers and buds are present at the apex. Each flower has a slender, erect or diverging pedicel (stalk). Each flower has four white petals. The flowers are sometimes tinted with a faint pink color. The fruit is a silique (a dry fruit that is more than three times as long as wide that splits at maturity leaving the seed exposed on a papery septum). Spring Cress is not usually available commercially. Plants can be grown from seed. Spring Cress requires a soil that is constantly moist. It doesn’t seem to be particular as to soil type or sun exposure.--A. Diamond

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Native OBL (NWPL)

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