American cress

Barbarea verna, the land cress or early winter cress, is a biennial or short-lived perennial herb of the cabbage family forming, in its first year, a rosette of deeply pinnately lobed, dark green, glossy leaves with a large rounded terminal lobe and several smaller side lobes. In its second year it produces an erect, branched flowering stem 30 to 80 cm tall bearing clusters of small, four-petalled bright yellow cruciform flowers. These are followed by slender, erect to spreading cylindrical pods (siliques) containing rows of small seeds. Native to southwestern Europe and naturalized widely elsewhere, it grows on damp, disturbed, and cultivated ground and is grown as a peppery winter salad and potherb valued for its cress-like flavour and hardiness.