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Cardamine hirsuta

Common name:	Hairy Bittercress	Family:	Cruciferae
Author:	L.	Botanical references:	17
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	Throughout most of the northern Hemisphere, including Britain.
Habitat:	Open and cultivated ground, rocks, scree, walls etc[17].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	3	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	0

Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Hairy Bitter-cress [L], Hairy Bittercress [P,H,B], Kleine Veldkers [D],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	hirsuta = hairy
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Capparales. Renamed to Brassicaceae -- Mustard family
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: USA Invasive.

Physical Characteristics

Annual growing to 0.3m. It is hardy to zone 5 and is not frost tender. It is in flower from April to August, and the seeds ripen from May to September. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs). The plant is self-fertile. We rate it 3/5 for edibility and 0/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Cultivated Beds, Walls.

Edible Uses

Flowers Leaves.

Leaves and flowers - raw or cooked[2, 5, 52, 53, 105]. A hot cress-like flavour, they are mainly used as a garnish or flavouring in salads etc[132] but are also sometimes used as a potherb[183]. The plant germinates most freely in the autumn and so leaves are usually available all winter[244].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

None known

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

Prefers a moist humus rich soil in shade or semi-shade[200] but it succeeds in most soils and positions[1].
A common garden weed, it can be in flower all year round if the weather is mild. It will usually self-sow very freely in cultivated soil and is found especially in pot-grown plants[K].

Propagation

Seed - sow spring or autumn in situ. This species needs very little encouragement and is quite capable of sowing itself, often too freely.

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

PFAF Web Pages

This plant is mentioned in the following web pages

Winter Salads

Web References

[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[K] Ken Fern
Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.

[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[5] Mabey. R. Food for Free. Collins 1974 ISBN 0-00-219060-5
Edible wild plants found in Britain. Fairly comprehensive, very few pictures and rather optimistic on the desirability of some of the plants.

[17] Clapham, Tootin and Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1962
A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.

[52] Larkcom. J. Salads all the Year Round. Hamlyn 1980
A good and comprehensive guide to temperate salad plants, with full organic details of cultivation.

[53] De. Bray. L. The Wild Garden.
Interesting reading.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[132] Bianchini. F., Corbetta. F. and Pistoia. M. Fruits of the Earth.
Lovely pictures, a very readable book.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[244] Phillips. R. & Foy. N. Herbs Pan Books Ltd. London. 1990 ISBN 0-330-30725-8
Deals with all types of herbs including medicinal, culinary, scented and dye plants. Excellent photographs with quite good information on each plant.

Readers Comments

Edible Wild Plants For Tortoises

Linda King Sat Aug 18 18:20:37 2001

http://www.tlady.clara.net/TortGuide/Diet.htm

Please go to my main Diet page and click on the Plant List link at the top. This is a new section of my Tortoise Care website, and is an illustrated Edible Wild Plants list for tortoise keepers in the UK. Click on the Latin names to see the illustrations which are all original work. The information with the illustrations would be equally applicable to iguanas and herbivorous mammals.

Details of Growing Condition: UK.

Cross references: Plants: Taraxacum officinale , Leontodon, Hypochoeris , Crepis biennis, Crepis capillaris , Lapsana communis , Cichorium intybus , Sonchus oleraceus , Plantago major, Plantago media, Plantago lanceotata , Malva sylvestris, Malva neglecta, Malva moschata , Capsella bursa-pastoris , Cardamine flexuosa , Trifolium repens , Trifolium pratense , Vicia sativa , Vicia sepium , Vicia cracca , Onobrychis sativa , Campanula rapunculoides , Convolvulus, Calystegia , Sedum album , Sisymbrium officinale .

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
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