Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Woodland Bittercress - Cardamine flexuosa   Withering
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Section 6 » Order Capparales » Family Brassicaceae
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AuthorWithering
DistributionScattered across the state, but with large gaps. Appears to be spreading in the past 2 decades and we expect it to turn up in additional counties. First collected in 1956 in a lawn in New Hanover County and on a roadside in 1957 in Rowan County. NOTE: see Taxonomic Comments.

Native of Europe and eastern Asia; in N.A. Newf. to Ont. south to FL and TX; also B.C. to CA.
AbundanceRare, so far as is known. But, it can be locally numerous, as in Whispering Pines, Moore County.
HabitatMoist to wet soils of swamp forests, roadside ditches, roadsides, river margins, near waterfalls, lawn weed, nursery weed.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting March-May.
IdentificationWoodland Bittercress may be mistaken for the ubiquitous C. hirsuta, but the lower stems are pubescent (vs. glabrous in C. hirsuta) and the stems root at the nodes (vs. not and thus more erect in the latter). Robust, multi-stem plants may resemble the native C. pensylvanica, but the lower petioles are ciliate (vs. not ciliate in that species).
Taxonomic CommentsWeakley (2018) has replaced the name flexuosa with occulta Hornemann. Apparently most N.A. specimens thought to be the European flexuosa actually belong to the east Asian occulta; see FNA (2010) for discussion.

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