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DESCRIPTION:
Little bittercress is a winter or summer annual (and sometimes biennial) broadleaf plant, 3 to 12
inches (7.5 - 30 cm) tall with several branched, smooth stems
emerging
at the soil line. Cotyledons (seed leaves) are egg-shaped to nearly round with slightly indented tips. Leaves
are alternate. The first 1-3 leaves are semicircular to kidney shaped with sparse coarse hairs, on stalks that
are as long as or longer than blades. Mature plant leaves, divided into 5 to 11 leaflets each, radiate from
the base of the stems in a rosette. Leaves are pinnately compound and leaflets are rounded, bright green,
and have short stalks and several lobes. Upper stem leaflets are narrower than those near the base. Two
to
ten white flowers are borne from the stem on stalks of unequal
length. The narrow, 0.5 to 0.75 inch (1.3 - 1.9 cm) long pods
split open
into two curling valves when mature, explosively projecting the
flattened and finely pebbled seed up to several yards (meters)
from
the plant. Hairy bittercress (C. hirsuta) is similar but
has fewer, lobed or kidney-shaped leaflets.
Broadleaf ID illustration.
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