Edible plant - novice Season - spring to autumn Common names lady's smock, milkmaids, bread and milk, cuckoo flower, Mayflower, cuckoo bread
Scientific name meaning: The Greek word Kardamon, which means cress-like, is the origin of the genus name Cardamine. Pratensis means of the meadow
Habitat  A native of Europe, lady's smock can be found in Asia and North America. It likes to grow in damp grassland, marshes, grass verges and on watersides. |
Overall structure  Lady's smock is a small, low growing plant that can be 5cm to 20cm in diameter. It forms a dense basal rosette of leaves before putting up a tall, woody flower stalk that can reach 60cm. It can be found as individual specimens but more often as individual plants thickly scattered over and area. |
Leaves  The pinnately compound leaves are made up of pairs of oval to palmately lobed leaflets with a terminal palmately lobed leaflet. The leaves form a basal rosette, which is easier to see in younger specimens before mass leaf growth distorts a more uniform shape. The flower stalk leaves have thin, needle like leaflets. |
Stem  The flower stem is a 2-4mm thick, cylindrical and woody. It can reach 60cm tall but is usually much smaller. |
Flowers  The flower stalks produce racemes of pale pink flowers, that each have a cruciform petal arrangement - four petals in a cross shape. On the petals, the veins are a darker shade of pink. The reproductive parts protrude out of the flower, which is 12-18mm in diameter. Flowers appear from mid spring to early summer. |
Seeds  Long, thin seed pods appear after pollination. |
Possible lookalikes  Lady's smock could be confused with other Cardamine species, particularly when it is not in flower. Many have similar leaf shapes, such as hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta), pictured. However, all of them are edible.
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Use as a food Lady's smock is a brassica, and therefore a relative of mustards. It has a lovely cress-like flavour with a chilli-like heat to it, which livens up a salad. All parts of lady's smock can be eaten, but the flower stalk is quite woody Use in herbal medicine and medicine Although not well-used in herbal remedies, lady's smock has been used as an appetite stimulant, stimulant, digestive aid, and diuretic. It has also been used to treat scurvy, asthma, skin conditions and hysteria
If you are suffering from any ailment or need medical advice, please see your General Practitioner.
Hazards None known
Other uses None known Importance to other species The flowers provide an important source of nectar for pollinators, particularly for the green-veined white and orange tip butterflies, whose larva also consume lady's smock foliage
Always stay safe when foraging. You need to be 100% sure of your identification, 100% sure that your foraged item is edible, and 100% sure that you are not allergic to it (it is good practice to always try a small amount of any new food you are consuming). If in doubt, leave it out!
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