Marsh Yellow-cress - Rorippa palustris

Description

Short to medium hairless plant, lower leaves pinnately lobed, often rather lyre shaped, the upper leaves unstalked, pinnately lobed to unlobed, with slight ears at the base. Flowers yellow, small 5 mm, sepals more than 1.6 mm long equal to petals, the fruit short, rarely much longer than its stalk.

Similar Species

other Rorippa and yellow crucifers in wet places

Identification difficulty
ID guidance

Leaves pinnately lobed, fruits oblong.  Petals about as long as sepals

Recording advice

General photo of plant in habitat, and photo showing details of leaves, flowers/fruits 

Habitat

Bare ground subjected to winter flooding, temporary pools that dry out, margins of streams and lakes, damp pathways.

When to see it

June to August.

Life History

Annual or biennial.

UK Status

Fairly frequent throughout Britain.

VC55 Status

Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 112 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current Checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it is listed as Native, 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
Marsh Yellow-cress
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Brassicales
Family:
Brassicaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
22
First record:
25/08/2006 (Calow, Graham)
Last record:
29/09/2022 (Nicholls, David)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

The latest images and records displayed below include those awaiting verification checks so we cannot guarantee that every identification is correct. Once accepted, the record displays a green tick.

In the Latest Records section, click on the header to sort A-Z, and again to sort Z-A. Use the header boxes to filter the list.

Latest images

Latest records