Although not the showiest of montane plants, this heart-leaved bitter-cress caught the attention of many Botany BC participants at last year’s meeting in Cathedral Provincial Park and Protected Area. It is uncommonly encountered in British Columbia, with a distributional range that barely extends into the province.
Cardamine cordifolia is more widespread across the western states of the USA, reaching as far east as Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico. Habitat preferences tend to be wet places: “Stream banks, springs, shady gullies, creek bottoms, lakeshores, ponds, cold springs, meadows, moist hillsides, mossy areas, alpine streams, mixed coniferous forests”; all the populations we noted were either lakeside or streamside.
As many as five varieties of Cardamine cordifolia have been recognized by some plant taxonomists (and if following these interpretations, today’s taxon would be Cardamine cordifolia var. lyallii). However, both the Flora of North America and the upcoming Flora of the Pacific Northwest, 2nd Edition treat all these as part of a highly-variable species, recognizing the entity as simply Cardamine cordifolia.
The US Forest Service has a “plant of the week” feature on Cardamine cordifolia, while Southwest Colorado Wildflowers has a fine photograph of Cardamine cordifolia alongside a mountain stream.
I planted some of this at the top of a retaining wall that leads down to my basement door on the North side of my house, almost under my back deck. Needless to say, it’s a very dark spot with no direct sunlight whatsoever. It has never been watered. The Cardamine filled its allotted space in no time, and its evergreen foliage is a welcome sight year round in such a dismal location. In the springtime, it’s covered in white flowers that brighten the entrance dramatically. Most people wouldn’t have bothered to try to plant anything in that location, but I’m a gardener. Where there’s a space, there are plants : )