Plants : BrassicaceaeFerns and Flowering Plants

Cardamine pratensis L.

Cuckoo-flower

2872a.jpg
Cardamine pratensis

Description: Also called the mayflower (the ship on which the Pilgrim Fathers sailed to America was probably named after this species) because of its time of main flowering. A common herbaceous plant of damp meadows and pasture; also of grassy roadside verges, woodland clearings and as a lawn weed. Very variable in colour of flower from white to deep pinky-purple.

All names: Cardamine pratensis L.; Cardamine nymanii Gand.; Cardamine matthioli Moretti; Cardamine hayneana (Reichb.) Fritsch; Cardamine palustris (Wimmer & Grab.) Peterm.; Cardamine rivularis Schur; Cardamine crassifolia Porret

Distribution Map from NBN: Cardamine pratensis at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Cardamine pratensis at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

 Hackney, P., 2026. Cardamine pratensis. L.. [In] Flora of Northern Ireland.
https://habitas.org/flora/species.php?item=2872. Accessed on 2026-11-02.