Cardamine pensylvanica

Pennsylvania bittercress

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: annual · Native

Pennsylvania bittercress is a California native annual found in the northern Sierra Nevada and northern Sierra Nevada Foothill regions in wet or muddy places at elevations of 200 to 2,200 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces small white flowers around 2 to 3.5 millimeters long with delicate petals. Growing with erect stems 1 to 5.5 meters tall that are simple or branched toward the top, it has pinnately compound leaves with 7 to 13 leaflets. Its lower leaves feature round to oblanceolate leaflets with entire or slightly wavy margins, with the terminal leaflet typically larger than the lateral ones. The slender fruits are approximately 1.7 to 2.7 centimeters long, bearing 40 to 80 small oblong seeds.

Habitat: Wet or muddy places

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 200-2200 m

Bioregions: CaR, n SNF

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