Hairy Bitter-cress - Cardamine hirsuta

Description

About 10 to 20cm in height branched only at the base, with a basal rosette of pinnate leaves, hairy on top. The stems are straight and hairless. The flowers are white 3 to 4 mm with 4 stamens. The pods overtop the flowers.

Similar Species

Cardamine flexuosa

Identification difficulty
ID guidance

Most open flowers with 4 stamens, sometimes 5

Recording advice

General photo of plant in habitat, plus details of the flowers

Habitat

Bare open ground, cultivated land, rocky places and even walls.

When to see it

February to November.

Life History

Annual.

UK Status

Common throughout most of Britain.

VC55 Status

Quite common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 269 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current Checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it is listed as Native, locally frequent

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Hairy Bitter-cress
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Brassicales
Family:
Brassicaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
129
First record:
20/03/2006 (Calow, Graham)
Last record:
04/04/2024 (Smith, Peter)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

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