Lady's Smock or Cuckoo Flower

Cardamine pratensis

"flowering for the most parte in Aprille and Maie when the Cockowe doth begin to sing his pleasant notes without stammering"
John Gerard 1545-1612

Despite being one the loveliest flowers of spring, lady's smock or cuckoo flower is easy to overlook. I always look forward to its first appearance in late April when the newly minted flowers, especially seen in the early morning dew, are among the best sights the year has to offer.

1. Cuckoo flower inflorescence in the early morning with partially opened flowers. 

Where the popular names come from is not clear, it has been suggested that 'smock' name comes from the resemblance of whitish patches of its flowers to white linen smocks spread out to dry and bleach. There are other variations of the cuckoo name including 'cuckoo bread', 'cuckoo's shoes' and 'cuckoo spit' and this name may derive from its appearance coinciding with cuckoo song. Another proposed explanation is that grasshoppers show a liking for the flower and leave their frothy spit there in preference to other flowers. I have observed this on occasion in Leazes Park but I remain unconvinced of this story.

Taxonomy

Lady's smock belongs to the Brassicaceae which is a large family of flowers that typically have four petals in a cross shape giving rise to the old family name Cruciferae.  It belongs in the genus Cardamine along with other less showy bittercresses with small white flowers such as wavy bittercress Cardamine flexuosa and hairy bittercress Cardamine hirsuta. As you might expect you can eat the leaves in a salad but don't indulge you're curiosity  - there aren't enough of them in the park to justify sacrificing a single specimen.

Habit

Lady's smock has a delicate upright habit and is 10-50cms in in height. The stem is round and hairless. In spite of its slight appearance, it seems to remain upright in strong winds, perhaps in part because it is supported by the long grass it which it is often to be found.

Leaves

There is a basal rosette of 1-pinnate leaves with rounded leaflets. Because the basal leaves are long-stalked you can easily fail to see them in the undergrowth or even fail to connect them with the flower.
Further up the stem the leaves are again 1-pinnate but alternate up the stem. Compared to basal leaves the stalks are short and the leaflets are more narrowly elliptic.

2. The basal rosette is not easy to find in the undergrowth


3. One-pinnate stem leaf with narrow leaflets

Inflorescence and flowers

The inflorescence is a raceme so that the newest flowers are to be found near the top and older flowers basally. During the fruiting stage the inflorescence elongates making it even more obvious that it is a raceme with more mature fruits lower down the stem.
Individual flowers conform to the general pattern of the Brassicaceae. There are four free sepals set crosswise and if you look carefully you can see that two of the sepals (picture 1) have a larger bulge at the base, these bulges correspond to the larger two nectaries that are associated with the two smaller stamens.
There are four free faint purple petals that are lined with a darker purple. With exposure to the sun, the flowers become more white in colour and to my eyes at least not quite as beautiful as the newly minted flowers.
The female sex parts (gynoecium) consist of a superior ovary with a short style that is topped with a flat-topped stigma.
The male sex parts consist of six stamens (4 is more usual in members of the Brassicaceae) there are two pairs with long filaments and two individual stamens with short filaments.

3. Typical flowers for Brassicaceae - 4 unfused petals

4. Fruiting stage (raceme more apparent)

Where to find cuckoo flower

You never see large clumps of lady's smock, at least not in Leazes Park. I find isolated individuals in damp areas and that means the wild area at the north end of the park and the marshy area just north of the tennis courts (see maps below). It is often found in long grass and you only see the mauve flowers showing above the surrounding vegetation.

5. Good places to find lady's smock are arrowed in yellow

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