Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Cardamine oligosperma Nutt.
- Family: Mustard (Cruciferae)
- Flowering: March-July
- Field Marks: This bitter-cress differs from all others by being an annual with white petals up to 1/8 inch long and at least some of the leaflets nearly spherical.
- Habitat: Moist woods.
- Habit: Annual (less commonly biennial) herb with a taproot.
- Stems: Upright, usually unbranched, up to 20 inches tall, with short, spreading hairs or smooth.
- Leaves: Mostly basal in a rosette, with a few alternate leaves on the stem, pinnately compound with 5-11 leaflets, the leaflets oval to nearly round, up to 1/3 inch long, with or without lobes or teeth, short-hairy or smooth, on distinct stalks; leaflets of stem leaves much narrower.
- Flowers: 2-10 in a terminal raceme, without bracts.
- Sepals: 4, green, free from each other, up to 1/24 inch long.
- Petals: 4, white, free from each other, spatulate, up to 1/8 inch long.
- Stamens: 6.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Pods very upright, elongated, very narrow, up to 1 inch long; seeds winged.
- Notes: The leaves are sometimes browsed by deer.
Previous Species -- Brewer's Bitter-cress (Cardamine breweri)
Return to Species List -- Group 6
Next Species -- Western Water-hemlock (Cicuta douglasii)
