DACF Home → Bureaus & Programs → Maine Natural Areas Program → Communities, Plants, and Animals → Rare Plants → Cardamine bellidifolia
Cardamine bellidifolia L.
Alpine Bitter-cress
- State Rank: SX
- Global Rank: G5
- State Status: Potentially Extirpated
Habitat: By alpine brooks, in cold ravines or on wet mossy rocks. [Alpine or subalpine (non-forested, upland)]
Range: Circumboreal, south to the higher mountains of Maine and New Hampshire.
Aids to Identification: Alpine bitter-cress is a perennial herb with densely tufted stems growing to 3-10 cm. The small oval leaves are on long leaf-stalks; there are 2-5 white flowers on each stem; and the fruits are erect and crowded. This species is easily distinguished from the similar salt-marsh bitter-cress (C. longii) by the difference in habitat.
Ecological characteristics: In Maine this species is known to occur on high elevation wet ledges of Katahdin. Maine populations are C. bellidifolia var. bellidifolia.
Phenology: Flowers June - September.
Family: Brassicaceae
Synonyms: Represented in Maine and New England by var. bellidifolia. No synonyms noted.
Known Distribution in Maine: This rare plant has been documented from a total of 1 town(s) in the following county(ies): Piscataquis.
Reason(s) for rarity: Disjunct from principal range.
Conservation considerations: Populations of this taxa are small and vulnerable in Maine. Known populations are small, and subject to the vagaries of small populations like random fluctuations or localized disturbance events.