Cuckoo Flower Edible

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Cuckoo flower edible.

Most provide delicious and nutritious fruit but many also have edible leaves seeds flowers stems or roots or they yield edible or useful oil. Cardamine pratensis is a perennial growing to 0 5 m 1ft 8in by 0 3 m 1ft. Leaves and young shoots raw or cooked. They have been selected to provide a mix of different plant sizes and growing conditions.

Edible shrubs provides detailed information attractively presented on over 70 shrub species. The plant is self fertile. Cardamine pratensis the cuckoo flower lady s smock mayflower or milkmaids is a flowering plant in the family brassicaceae native throughout most of europe and western asia. Edible parts of cuckoo flower.

Cuckoo flower or lady s smock as it is also known like other early wildflowers provides a nectar source for butterflies bees and other insects in early spring making it a great addition to a wild flower or wildlife garden. Edibility 4 5 leaves and flowers identification 4 5 30 50cm tall 4 petalled pink flowers leaf stalks with 1 3 small paired oval lobes and one large kidney shaped terminal lobe all glossy and distinctly veined distribution 2 5 rare but widely dispersed throughout the uk in wet woodland riverbanks and marshland. Its common name cuckoo flower refers to the arrival of the flowers at the same time as the cuckoo begins to sing. The leaves and young shoots are harvested in the spring and taste rather like water cress.

Cardamine pratensis is a herbaceous hairless perennial plant growing to. The flowers are usually veined with darker violet but in some areas pure white forms can be found. Edible autumn spring summer winter view full size image. Its pale pink flowers bloom from april to june and are thought to coincide with the arrival of the first cuckoo a sure sign that spring has arrived at last how to identify cuckooflower has a rosette of leaves at its base and an upright stem that bears the delicate small pale pink or mauve flowers.

Often known as lady s smock the pretty lilac flowers open around the time the cuckoo starts to call. It is hardy to zone uk 4 and is not frost tender. The species is hermaphrodite has both male and female organs and is pollinated by bees flies lepidoptera moths butterflies. Rich in vitamins and minerals especially vitamin c but with a bitter and pungent flavour.

It is in flower from april to june and the seeds ripen from may to july. The specific name pratensis is latin for meadow. However both its round to kidney shaped basal leaves and upper stem leaves are simple not compound divided. Our minnesota cuckoo flower is somewhat similar to our native spring cress cardamine bulbosa that can also be found in heavily shaded wet woodlands where it to grows weak and spindly.