Milkmaids

Cardamine californica

Cardamine californica also known as milkmaids or toothwort is another plant that can be found in redwood forest, though unlike other plants that we discussed it is very rare (at least in our region). The flowers are white, fairly small but not tiny and have four petals. Four petals is a sign of mustard family though to me it surely did not look like mustard family because flowers are not small enough for mustard. So I checked the internet and whad'ya know! It does belong to mustard family (Brassicaceae). It seems to love shade.

Cardamine californica flowers

Another example of milkmaids

One thing I noticed about milkmaids is that they seem to be solitary plants, they don't grow in companies like redwood sorrel. I don't know if it is due to propagation methods or they just don't like company, the fact is that it is a rare plant in our redwood forest.