New Zealand Bitter-cress
New Zealand Bitter-cress - Cardamine corymbosa
A very small, low growing plant with typical Cardamine seedpods emerging from the flower before the petals have dropped. Inflorescence very few-flowered. The flowers are white with four petals and usually 6 stamens; larger than than Cardamine hirsuta or C flexuosa. Leaves glabrous or sparsely hairy. .
Cardamine flexuosa and C hirsuta
Photo of open flowers showing number of stamens, and an indication of the size of the open flowers
It has spread as a horticultural contaminant and is naturalised on paths, cultivated ground, rockeries and in pavement cracks.
It has quite a long flowering period from March or April through to autumn.
It is usually annual but sometimes behaves as a perennial. It reproduces by seed and also by leaf-tip rooting.
First found in the British Isles in 1985 and spreading.
Rarely recorded in Leicestershire and Rutland but possibly under recorded and more frequent than records suggest.
Leicestershire & Rutland Map
Enter a town or village to see local records
MAP KEY:
Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020


