Cardamine cordifolia

Heartleaf bittercress

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Heartleaf bittercress is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California Ranges, and northern Sierra Nevada Mountains in streambanks, meadows, and mixed-conifer forests at elevations of 600 to 3,600 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces white flowers with delicate obovate petals 7 to 12 millimeters long. Growing 20 to 70 centimeters tall with simple or branched stems, it develops from a cylindric rhizome with fleshy green growth. Its distinctive leaves are heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, ranging 5 to 15 centimeters long, with petioles 2.5 to 12 centimeters in length and a simple, fleshy structure. The fruit develops as an ascending to erect pod 2.5 to 3.7 centimeters long, containing 14 to 24 small oblong seeds.

Habitat: Streambanks, meadows, wet or moist areas, mixed-conifer forest

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 600-3600 m

Bioregions: KR, CaR, n SNH

California counties: Placer, Modoc, Humboldt, Siskiyou, El Dorado, Plumas, Nevada, Butte, Mono, Tulare

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.