Cardamine Species, Cutleaf Toothwort, Crow's Toes, Flowered Toothwort, Pepper Root

This plant is a caterpillar food source for the West Virginia White (threatened species) and the Falcate Orange Tip butterfly.

I have a small patch that I brought at a plant sale - it multiply slowly and prefer more shade. It is also hard to very hard to find in t...Read Morehe plant trade - so far I have only found a few websites that sells it plus C. diphylla - two leaf toothwort. The few other sources where you can buy them are at spring plant sales where the seller are fellow gardeners as they are not viable for non specific nurseries as they tend to disappear when stressed or during the summer, leaving behind a dirt pot. Both are the most commonly sold native cardamine. They are really nice plants, very tame compare to the other members of the mustard family and have interesting flowers if you are willing to look up close to them. There are large patches of it in Coon Rapids Dam park in flat locations but a bit higher up - you can tell where they grow by the large amount of ground plants - very few plants grow where the floods come every five years or so.

Masses of these appear in the decidous woods around my home in the spring. Then they go dormant once the weather turns hot.

...Read More> They make quite attractive white bell flowers.

I don't know of the plant serving any purpose but it is unobtrusive and dainty.

Another great showy North American native woodland plant. Wonderful spring ephemeral that will ever so slowly naturalize by rhizomes to f...Read Moreorm colonies

You can pickle the plant or boil it or eat it raw with a little salt although I think it is much prettier left standing.

The plant likes rich and moist well drained soil.

Virtually no insect or disease problems.