''Cardamine pratensis'', the cuckoo flower, lady's smock, mayflower, or milkmaids, is a

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the family

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The le ...

. It is a perennial herb native throughout most of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

Western Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...

. The specific name ''pratensis'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for "meadow".

Description

''Cardamine pratensis'' is a

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

, hairless,Webb, D.A., Parnell, J. and Doogue, D. ''An Irish Flora'' 1996. Dundalgan Press, Dundalk.

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

growing to 40–60 cm tall, with pinnate

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

5–12 cm long with 3–15 leaflets, each leaflet about 1 cm long. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are produced on a spike 10–30 cm long, each flower 1–2 cm in diameter with four very pale violet-pink (rarely white) petals. The style of the fruit is short or longish. It grows best close to water.

Etymology

Its common name ''cuckoo flower'' derives from the formation of the plant's flowers at around the same time as the arrival each spring of the first

cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separ ...

s in the British Isles. An alternative 16th century dated tale refers to 'cuckoo spit', which the plant is sometimes covered in, due to a bug called the

froghopper The froghoppers, or the superfamily Cercopoidea, are a group of hemipteran insects in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha. Adults are capable of jumping many times their height and length, giving the group their common name, but they are best known ...

and not the cuckoo.

Taxonomy

''Cardamine pratensis'' is a polyploid complex, with all ploidy levels from diploid to decaploid, and dodecaploid, known, as well as frequent aneuploids. It may be treated as a single species, or divided into ''Cardamine pratensis'' s.str. (diploid to heptaploid) and ''Cardamine palustris'' (syn. ''Cardamine pratensis'' subsp. ''paludosa'' (Knaf) Celak., ''Cardamine dentata'' Schult.)) (octaploid to decaploid).

Distribution

The species is commonly found throughout the British Isles. Recorded in Ireland from all 40 of the "

vice-counties A vice-county (vice county or biological vice-county) is a geographical division of the British Isles used for the purposes of biological recording and other scientific data-gathering. It is sometimes called a Watsonian vice-county as vice-coun ...

" (a system adopted by Praeger in 1901).

Cultivation

It is grown as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

in gardens, and has become

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

as a result of cultivation. In some European countries, including parts of Germany, the plant is now under threat. It is a food plant for the orange tip butterfly (''Anthocharis cardamines'') and makes a valuable addition to any garden which aims at attracting wildlife. It was once used as a substitute for

watercress Watercress or yellowcress (''Nasturtium officinale'') is a species of aquatic flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. Watercress is a rapidly growing perennial plant native to Europe and Asia. It is one of the oldest known leaf ve ...

Folklore

In folklore it was said to be sacred to the

fairies A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, o ...

, and so was unlucky if brought indoors. It was not included in

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. T ...

garland A garland is a decorative braid, knot or wreath of flowers, leaves, or other material. Garlands can be worn on the head or around the neck, hung on an inanimate object, or laid in a place of cultural or religious importance. Etymology From the ...

s for the same reason.

Additional general information

It is the

county flower In a number of countries, plants have been chosen as symbols to represent specific geographic areas. Some countries have a country-wide floral emblem; others in addition have symbols representing subdivisions. Different processes have been used to ...

of the English county of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

Gallery

File: Blume in Wildbad 07.jpg , ''Cardamine pratensis'' in Bavaria, Germany File:Cuckoo flower Wiltshire.JPG, ''Cardamine pratensis'' growing in Wiltshire, UK Image:Cardamine pratensis.jpg, Details of flowers Image:Cardamine pratensis 10.JPG, Buds of a ''Cardamine pratensis'' File:Illustration Cardamine pratensis0.jpg, Botanical illustration from Otto Wilhelm Thomé Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885, Gera, Germany File:Cardamine pratensis řeřišnice luční 1.jpg, Flowers File:Cardamine pratensis řeřišnice luční 2.jpg, Plants File:Pinksterbloem.jpg, Flowers, pinker variety File: Cardamine pratensis 2.JPG, Seedling

References

External links

* {{Commons category , Cardamine pratensis pratensis Flora of France Flora of Western Asia Flora of Portugal Flora of China Flora of Japan Flora of Korea Flora of Denmark Flora of Ireland Flora of Norway Flora of the United Kingdom Flora of the Czech Republic Flora of Lithuania Flora of Greece Flora of Italy Flora of Latvia Flora of Spain Flora of Greenland Flora of Connecticut Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora without expected TNC conservation status