Cuckoo Flower Leaves

It bears long narrow leaves and supremely elegant flowers two or three to each stem in white or with pink tomes.

Cuckoo flower leaves. However both its round to kidney shaped basal leaves and upper stem leaves are simple not compound divided. However both its round to kidney shaped basal leaves and upper stem leaves are simple not compound divided. Pratensis is a perennial to 40cm forming a basal rosette of pinnate leaves with rounded leaflets with erect leafy stems bearing short open racemes of 4 petalled pale pink or white flowers 1 5cm across in late spring. Cuckooflower cardamine pratensis often known as lady s smock the pretty lilac flowers open around the time the cuckoo starts to call.

Cuckoo flower cardamine pratensis is a herbaceous early spring perennial with delicate lilac or violet tinted flowers with obvious dark violet veins and yellow anthers on a sturdy stem varying in size to around 40cm long seen from april to june. Each flower has four petals although double flowered varieties do appear. The flowers are usually veined with darker violet but in some areas pure white forms can be found. The leaves are a basal rosette with 8 pairs of oval leaflets.

Pensylvanica does have divided leaves like cuckoo flower but its flowers are much smaller 1 8 to inch across and is a much more robust plant. A beautiful crown of very pail pink purple or sometimes white cruciforme flowers four petals in a cross shape growing in a ring at the top of the flower stem. The blooms appear in late spring to early summer just at the time as the first cuckoo starts to call. 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.

Please visit our sponsors. The specific name pratensis is latin for meadow. The flowers droop and close at night or during heavy rain. Pensylvanica does have divided leaves like cuckoo flower but its flowers are much smaller 1 8 to inch across and is a much more robust plant.

It is an important food plant for the caterpillars of the orange tip and the green veined white butterfly. Cuckooflower has a rosette of leaves at its base and an upright stem that bears the delicate small pale pink or mauve flowers.