Native Plant of the Week: Cut Leaved Toothwort ~ Cardamine concatenata

Cut Leaved Toothwort ~ Cardamine concatenata (Dentaria laciniata)


Cut Leaved Toothwort is another spring woodland ephemeral that just started to flower this week here in central Minnesota. The four parted white flowers are arranged in a cluster above the whorled deeply toothed leaves.

A native perennial of medium to moist soils in deciduous woodlands, its bright white flowers (sometimes pinkish) hang downwards and open up during the warm sunny spring days.

This woodland native has interestingly shaped rhizomes that are like rings joined together, also described as resembling a string of beads. Concatenata means 'linking together'. (Wildflowers of Wisconsin)

Solitary bees are just one type of early emerging insect that pollinate the flowers.

In Minnesota, this plant can be found in Big Woods remnants, such as Nerstrand State Park.

It is native North American woodlands from North Dakota southwards to Texas and east including Ontario, Quebec and the maritime provinces in Canada.