Cardamine oligosperma
Bitter cress
Family: Brassicaceae · Type: annual · Native
Bitter cress is a native annual herb found in California Floristic Province and Western and Inner Coast Ranges in wet meadows, shady banks, and damp areas at elevations of 50 to 3,300 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces small white flowers about 2.5 to 3.5 millimeters long in elongated clusters. Growing with erect or ascending stems 8 to 30 centimeters tall, it emerges with multiple stems from a single base and features a taproot. Its leaves are pinnately compound with 5 to 9 leaflets, the terminal leaflet 4 to 15 millimeters long and round or ovate, often larger than the lateral leaflets. The fruits are slender, ascending pods 16 to 28 millimeters long containing 16 to 32 small oblong seeds.
Habitat: Wet meadows, shady banks, damp areas
Bloom period: Mar-Jul
Elevation: 50-3300 m
Bioregions: CA-FP, W&I
California counties: Contra Costa, Alameda, Butte, Humboldt, Lake, Los Angeles, Madera, Mendocino, Monterey, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Shasta, Solano, Tehama, Trinity, Ventura, Sacramento, Sonoma, San Bernardino, Fresno, Nevada, Placer, San Diego, Sutter, Yuba, Tulare, San Benito, El Dorado, Amador, Inyo, Napa, Calaveras, Marin, Tuolumne, Santa Cruz, Plumas, Mariposa, Stanislaus, Del Norte, Glenn, Siskiyou, Colusa, Lassen, Yolo, San Joaquin, Merced
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.