Tiny four-petalled white flowers above flat, triangular heart-shaped pods that split open to release copper-coloured seeds
Shepherd's purse - Capsella bursa-pastoris.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Shepherd's purse
Archaeophyte · annual, flowers all year · fields, tracks, gardens, waste ground
Capsella bursa-pastoris — Brassicaceae
Shepherd's purse is one of the most widespread of all weeds, flowering in every month of the year. It is recognised at once by its flat, heart-shaped seed pods, which someone thought looked like the purses of medieval shepherds. It is an ancient introduction, and in Japan it is one of the seven herbs of spring.
How to spot them
- ▸Flat, heart-shaped (inverted triangular) green pods on thin stalks up the stem
- ▸Tiny white four-petalled flowers in a cluster at the top of the stem
- ▸A basal rosette of variable, dandelion-like lobed leaves; stem leaves arrow-shaped and clasping
- ▸Annual to about 35 cm; flowers in every month
- ▸Look-alike: field penny-cress has larger, round, flat, winged pods; other small crucifers have long, narrow pods
How to know it
The Latin species name means 'pouch of the shepherd', for the shape of the seed pods, which resemble a medieval pouch
Shepherd's purse - bursa-pastoris.
Each plant produces 2,000-3,000 seeds, feeding wildlife, and it flowers in every month of the year
Shepherd's purse - Wildlife Trusts.
In Japan it is one of the seven herbs of spring, eaten in a rice porridge on 7 January, under the name nazuna
Shepherd's purse - haru no nanakusa; chickweed (hakobe) is another.
Classed as an archaeophyte, it is a member of the cabbage and mustard family whose flat pods are a childhood plaything
Shepherd's purse - Brassicaceae; folk names include pick-pocket and mother's-heart.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Brassicaceae (cabbage and mustard family), formerly Cruciferae
- •BSBI: an archaeophyte; common and ubiquitous in disturbed, nutrient-rich habitats
- •Wildlife Trusts: flowers January to December; up to 35 cm; 2,000-3,000 seeds per plant
- •Bursa-pastoris is Latin for 'shepherd's pouch'
- •Children's game: pluck a pod and 'you've broken your mother's heart' - folk names include mother's-heart and pick-pocket
- •Among the seven herbs of spring (haru no nanakusa) eaten in Japan, as nazuna
- •Also eaten in East Asia as a spring vegetable
- •A model plant in evolutionary genetics because of its variation and its tetraploid genome
Drill it — 6 cards
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Shepherd's purse
- BSBI — Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik. (Shepherd's-purse)