Medium-flowered Winter-cress

Barbarea intermedia

On waste ground, damp places, roadsides (and my very own garden) this plant is a perennial which flowers from March to August.  Growing to about 80cm high, it is a stiff, upright plant with strong, ridged stalks and it has yellow 4-petalled flowers (5-6mm across) which are borne in clustered terminal heads.  The leaves are shiny, dark green and they are all lobed. The fruits are long, narrow 4-sided pods. This is not a native plant but is said to have been introduced from the Mediterranean, and it belongs to the family Brassicaceae

Reputed to be full of Vitamin C, this plant appears in several recipes for soups and vegetable dishes, however it has an ability to store contaminates so great care should be taken to ensure any plant for consumption has been grown without coming into contact with pesticides.   It was used by our forebears as a poultice for drawing poisons from wounds or sores

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