Control: Evaluate 2003 herbicide trials conducted at Oregon State University.
| Latin name: Cardamine hirsuta |
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| Family: Brassicaceae
(or Cruciferae), Mustard family |
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| Common name: This weed has
a tremendous variety of common names, most relating to the way seed
propel from the silique (seed pods). The most used common name
is bittercress, others include: pepperweed, shotweed, snapweed, ad
infinitum. Snapweed is the name of choice in British Columbia. |
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Life cycle: winter annual;
Most prolific from late fall through early spring. This
weed is most problematic in propagation and overwintering. Despite
being a winter annual, bittercress will germinate and grow throughout
the year due to the cool environment provided by daily overhead irrigation. |
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Habit: Plants form a
small mounded clump generally 4 to 8 inches tall and wide. However,
during warm summer months, bittercress generally grow much smaller. Often,
many seedlings germinate in a small area so that they appear as a large,
dense mat. |
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Foliage: Each leaf generally
contains 4 to 8 leaflets arranged alternately along the rachis. |
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Flower: Flowers occur
in racemes. Each flower has 4 white petals, generally 3 to 5 mm
in diameter. |
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Seed or seed pods: Seed
pods of bittercress are known as siliques, in fact, seed pods of all
plants in the mustard family are considered siliques. Siliques are
a dry, two-sided, dehiscent fruit. |
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Cotyledon or seedling: Cotyledons
are round, and first true leaves are often simple and club-shaped (same
general shape as leaflets on older foliage). |
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Roots: Taproot |
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Bittercress and aphids: As if bittercress
weren't bad enough by itself, it also is a refuge for aphids. |
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Control: Evaluate 2003 herbicide trials conducted at Oregon State University. |