1. Cardamine bulbosa (Schreb. ex Muhl.) Britton, Sterns &
Poggenb. (springcress)
C. bulbosa f. fontinalis E.J. Palmer & Steyerm.
C. rhomboidea (Pers.) DC.
Pl. 316 g, h;
Map 1331
Plants perennial herbs, occasionally emergent aquatics, with short, tuberous
rhizomes, these unsegmented or occasionally irregularly constricted into 2 or 3
segments. Stems (15–)20–60 cm long, glabrous or rarely with sparse, minute
hairs to 0.1 mm long (visible only with strong magnification) in the apical
half. Leaves 2–7 cm long, simple, entire, wavy-margined, or with few, shallow,
widely spaced teeth, glabrous; the basal leaves usually withered by flowering
time, long-petiolate, the leaf blades ovate to cordate; the stem leaves 4–14,
mostly sessile, ovate to lanceolate or narrowly oblong. Sepals 2.5–5.0 mm long,
greenish yellow. Petals (6–)7–12(–16) mm long, white, sometimes faintly pinkish-tinged.
Styles 2–3(–5) mm long. Fruits 20–30 mm long, sometimes aborting before
maturity. Seeds 1.7–2.1 mm long, irregularly oblong to circular in outline, the
surface slightly roughened, orange to greenish yellow. 2n=64, 80, 96.
March–June.
Scattered in the southern, central, and northeastern portions of the state
(eastern U.S. west to South Dakota and Texas; Canada).
Bottomland forests, banks of streams and spring branches, fens, and less
commonly seepy bluffs and acid seeps.
There is controversy surrounding the validity of the name C. bulbosa.
Some authors have maintained that the basionym Arabis bulbosa Schreb. ex
Muhl. was not validly published, and they use the later name C. rhomboidea
for this species. The present treatment follows the recommendation of Merrill
and Hu (1949), who investigated the names published by Henry Muhlenberg in
detail.
Cardamine bulbosa and C. douglassii are both complex,
morphologically and cytologically variable species. They are not entirely
distinct morphologically in all parts of their ranges, and they have sometimes
been treated as varieties of C. bulbosa. Naturally occurring hybrids
have been documented from Ohio
by Hart and Eshbaugh (1976), who also documented several biochemical and
morphological races within each taxon. In Missouri, C. bulbosa flowers on
average 2 weeks later than does C. douglassii (Steyermark, 1963), and
the characters presented in the key to species above seem to separate the two
species adequately.
The rhizomes and aboveground portions of C. bulbosa have a flavor
reminiscent of horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) and have been used as a
substitute for it in salads and condiments. The species is commonly but not
exclusively associated with calcareous substrates.