Cardamine hirsuta – Hairy Bittercress

Hairy Bittercress is a spring wildflower that often gets overlooked. The plant is often considered a weed and in fact seems to prefer locations that other plants do not like, such as the cracks in the sidewalk. Another reason it’s overlooked is due to having really small flowers that are easy to overlook unless you look closely.

The plant consists of leaves that grow from the center as the earlier one mature. Each leaf contains many leaflets. The flower also emerges from the center and has a stem which grows upto around 6 inches and is topped with flowers which contine to emerge from as earlier blooms mature into seed. I have never seen a plant larger than 6 inches in diameter. The vegetative part of the plant remains throught the warm months and can even survive winter sometimea.

The bloom window for Hairy Bittercress covers from mid February to mid April depending on the weather and zone. Most of the time the plant remains but without flowers. The flowers don’t last long but are replaced by others up the stem until complete with seeds. The flowers also rarely are found fully open. It seems to appear more often in full sun rather than woods.