Cardamine pratensis

Cardamine pratensis, the cuckoo flower, lady's smock, mayflower, or milkmaids, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is a perennial herb native throughout most of Europe and western Asia. The specific name pratensis is Latin for "from/of the meadow".

Cardamine pratensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Brassicales
Family:	Brassicaceae
Genus:	Cardamine
Species:	C. pratensis
Binomial name
Cardamine pratensis L.
Synonyms
Cardamine dentata Schult.

Description

Cardamine pratensis is a herbaceous, hairless,^[1] perennial plant growing to 40–60 cm tall, with pinnate leaves 5–12 cm long with 3–15 leaflets, each leaflet about 1 cm long. The flowers are produced on a spike 10–30 cm long, each flower 1–2 cm in diameter with four very pale violet-pink (rarely white) petals. The style of the fruit is short or longish.^[1] It grows best close to water.

Etymology

Its common name cuckoo flower derives from the formation of the plant's flowers at around the same time as the arrival each spring of the first cuckoos in the British Isles.^[2] An alternative 16th century dated tale refers to 'cuckoo spit', which the plant is sometimes covered in, due to a bug called the froghopper and not the cuckoo.^[3]

Distribution

The species is commonly found throughout the British Isles.^[4]

Recorded in Ireland from all 40 of the "vice-counties" (a system adopted by Praeger in 1901).^[5]

Cultivation

It is grown as an ornamental plant in gardens, and has become naturalised in North America as a result of cultivation. In some European countries, including parts of Germany, the plant is now under threat.

It is a food plant for the orange tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines) and makes a valuable addition to any garden which aims at attracting wildlife. It was once used as a substitute for watercress.

Folklore

In folklore it was said to be sacred to the fairies, and so was unlucky if brought indoors. It was not included in May Day garlands for the same reason.^[6]

Additional general information

It is the county flower of the English county of Cheshire.^[7]

Gallery

• 
  Cardamine pratensis in Bavaria, Germany
• 
  Cardamine pratensis growing in Wiltshire, UK
• 
  Details of flowers
• 
  Buds of a Cardamine pratensis
• 
  Botanical illustration from Otto Wilhelm Thomé Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885, Gera, Germany
• 
  Flowers
• 
  Plants
• 
  Flowers, pinker variety
• 
  Seedling

References

1. Webb, D.A., Parnell, J. and Doogue, D. An Irish Flora 1996. Dundalgan Press, Dundalk. ISBN 0-85221-131-7
2. "Lady's Smock | Wildflowers | Wildlife". www.wildlifetrusts.org. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
3. Reader's Digest Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain. Reader's Digest. 1981. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-276-00217-5.
4. Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. 1968. Excursion Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-04656-4
5. Scannell, M.J.P and Synnott, D.M. 1972. Census Catalogue of the Flora of Ireland. Dublin
6. Howard, Michael. Traditional Folk Remedies, (Century, 1987); p
7. "Cuckooflower | Plant & fungi species | Wild plants". www.plantlife.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2017-01-03. Retrieved 2016-10-10.

External links

• Blanchan, Neltje (2002). Wild Flowers: An Aid to Knowledge of our Wild Flowers and their Insect Visitors. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.