Cardamine quinquefolia

[mark smyth]

Thanks Martin. When the purple one unfurls its leaves I'll post another photo

[Hoy]

Here are some of my Cardamines to compare. These are from last year. The spring isn't so advanced here yet.
-pentaphyllos:



-enneaphylla



-heptaphylla  
   


-waldsteinii

[Lesley Cox]

These would seem to be quite closely related to this whose name escapes me for the moment. It seeds about but is lovely under trees

[Brian Ellis]

Would it be a pachyphragma Lesley?

[Houseslippers]

Yes, that's Pachyphragma macrophylla, a good plant I think, a little coarse but with very good clean evergreen foliage, suitable for dry shade. Unaccountably quite rare in gardens. Mine makes a slowly spreading low carpet and very very occasionally seeds itself about.

[Maggi Young]

 Pachyphragma  macrophyllum, I think... isn't this one of those plants with "odd" endings ?

[Lesley Cox]

Yes, that's it all right, thanks. and yes, macrophyllum, because of the male or neutral Greek ending ma, as in Arisaema (candidissimum), Onosma (nanum) et al.

[Houseslippers]

Oh dear, I really must remember to check my plant names before posting. I've been corrected on other forums (fora?? gulp) before and I agree completely that it is very important to get these things right. It's a result of doing Latin at school - I tend to make wrong assumptions when languages start getting mixed up.

[Maggi Young]

Don't stress about it Tony, we all do it from time to time.
As a lousy typist I find I go into a daft auto-pilot mode on the pc and all sorts of rubbish appears...... it's not the end of the world!
 

[Stephenb]

A favourite here too, very early in to flower (only 2-3 weeks to go, difficult to believe as the blizzard rages) and quite tasty too (as are some of the Cardamines)...

[Martin Baxendale]

A favourite here too, very early in to flower (only 2-3 weeks to go, difficult to believe as the blizzard rages) and quite tasty too (as are some of the Cardamines)...

I can EAT my Cardamine quinquefolia?! Yes!!!! Revenge is mine, you invasive - if rather pretty - bloody weed!!

[Stephenb]

   Beware (if it's not too late) that this one is deadly, from memory, one of the stronger tasting ones, so your revenge may well backfire. Let us know whether we can add this one to the "if you can't beat it, eat it" family....

[Gail]

Cardamine quinquefolia has quite a bland taste, unlike C. pentaphyllos which is unpleasantly bitter.  Some people apparently eat the lady's smock (C. pratensis) but that has a medicinal taste, somewhat like germolene to my mind.  The one I prefer to eat is the pesky weed C. hirsuta (hairy bittercress) which despite the unappealing common name has a pleasant flavour like culinary cress.