196 
CRUCIFERAE (MUSTARD FAMILY) 
WINTER CRESS 
Barbaréa vulgaris, R. Br. 
Other English names: Herb Barbara, St. Barbara’s Cress, Yellow 
Rocket, Rocket Cress. 
Native. 
Time of bloom: April to June. 
Seed-time: June to August. 
Biennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Range: Labrador to the Pacific Coast, southward to Virginia and 
the Middle West. 
Also native to Europe. 
Habitat: Fields, meadows, roadsides, and waste places. 
This plant is easily distinguished from other Mustards by the 
large tufts of lyrate root-leaves, dark green, thick, smooth, shining, 
with heart-shaped terminal lobes and one to four lateral pairs along 
Fig. 189. — Winter Cress (Barbarea 
vulgaris). X }. 
the midribs; these glossy green 
rosettes are very conspicuous 
when first appearing from be- 
neath the winter snow; at that 
season they make excellent 
greens, and in Europe they are 
cultivated for use as a potherb. 
Even on St. Barbara’s Day, 
which is the fourth of Decem- 
ber, one may dig away the snow 
and find the plants green and 
succulent. Flowering stalks one 
to two feet tall, with leaves sessile 
and sometimes clasping. Flowers 
in open clusters, bright yellow, 
nearly an inch broad, sweet- 
scented. Siliques about an inch 
long, obscurely four-sided with 
valves keeled, the pedicels spread- 
ing but the pods nearly erect. 
Seeds brown, sometimes grayish 
with a coat of mucilage, flat, 
finely pitted; they are a com- 
mon impurity of grass and clover 
seeds. (Fig. 139.) 
