Cuckoo Flower Edible

The flowers are usually veined with darker violet but in some areas pure white forms can be found.

Cuckoo flower edible. It is also an essential larval food plant for the strikingly coloured orange tip butterfly. Cardamine pratensis the cuckoo flower lady s smock mayflower or milkmaids is a flowering plant in the family brassicaceae native throughout most of europe and western asia. It is hardy to zone uk 4 and is not frost tender. Edible parts of cuckoo flower.

The plant is self fertile. Often known as lady s smock the pretty lilac flowers open around the time the cuckoo starts to call. Edible autumn spring summer winter view full size image. Cuckoo flower or lady s smock as it is also known like other early wildflowers provides a nectar source for butterflies bees and other insects in early spring making it a great addition to a wild flower or wildlife garden.

The leaves and young shoots are harvested in the spring and taste rather like water cress. Our minnesota cuckoo flower is somewhat similar to our native spring cress cardamine bulbosa that can also be found in heavily shaded wet woodlands where it to grows weak and spindly. Cardamine pratensis is a herbaceous hairless perennial plant growing to. It is in flower from april to june and the seeds ripen from may to july.

Buckinghamshire milton keynes autumn foraging courses. It is an important food plant for the caterpillars of the orange tip and the green veined white butterfly. The species is hermaphrodite has both male and female organs and is pollinated by bees flies lepidoptera moths butterflies. Its common name cuckoo flower refers to the arrival of the flowers at the same time as the cuckoo begins to sing.

Edible shrubs provides detailed information attractively presented on over 70 shrub species. Leaves and young shoots raw or cooked. Most provide delicious and nutritious fruit but many also have edible leaves seeds flowers stems or roots or they yield edible or useful oil. The specific name pratensis is latin for meadow.

Cardamine pratensis is a perennial growing to 0 5 m 1ft 8in by 0 3 m 1ft. Back to hedgerow guide. Rich in vitamins and minerals especially vitamin c but with a bitter and pungent flavour. They have been selected to provide a mix of different plant sizes and growing conditions.