Cardamine trichocarpa (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Vegetable
Medicinal
Food security

Cardamine trichocarpa Hochst. ex A.Rich.

Protologue: Tent. fl. abyss. 1: 18 (1847).

Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)

Chromosome number: 2n = 32

Vernacular names

• Hairy bittercress (En).
• Cressonnette (Fr).
• Kisegeju (Sw).

Origin and geographic distribution

Cardamine trichocarpa is found in mountainous areas of central and eastern Africa, from Cameroon and Angola to Ethiopia and Tanzania. It is also found in Madagascar and India.

Uses

In Uganda, eastern DR Congo and Tanzania, the leaves of Cardamine trichocarpa are collected from the wild, wilted, chopped, boiled and eaten as a vegetable, alone with a staple food or in a mixture with beans or peas. They are also used as fodder for goats and rabbits. In Uganda this vegetable is considered useful to treat kwashiorkor. The crushed leaves are used as a dressing on wounds for 2–3 days to improve healing, and they also make a good herbal bath for babies.

Description

• Erect or ascending, annual herb up to 50 cm tall; stem unbranched or profusely branched from the base.
• Leaves alternate, in outline oblong, up to 15 cm long, imparipinnate with 3–11 leaflets, bearing rather stiff hairs; leaflets ovate, up to 5 cm long with stalks up to 1 cm long, lowest pairs smallest, apex acute, margin serrate to crenate.
• Inflorescence usually a terminal, densely flowered, stalked raceme up to 20 cm long in fruit.
• Flowers bisexual, regular, 4-merous, small, greenish, often cleistogamous; pedicel in fruit up to 7 mm long; sepals oblong, up to 2 mm long, with scattered hairs; petals white, shorter than sepals or absent; stamens 4; ovary superior, 2-celled, cylindrical, stigma sessile.
• Fruit a linear silique up to 2.5 cm × 1.5 mm, with scattered hairs.
• Seeds broadly oblong in outline, c. 1.5 mm × 1 mm, red-brown, minutely rugose.

Cardamine comprises about 130 species in subarctic, temperate and montane tropical areas all over the world, most abundantly in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in moist localities. In Africa 4 species occur. The leaves of Cardamine hirsuta L. (smaller than Cardamine trichocarpa with petals longer than sepals and glabrous fruits, originating from Europe but occurring in Africa in the same areas as Cardamine trichocarpa) are used as a vegetable in Europe and possibly also in Africa. In Cameroon they are boiled in soup and said to have stomachic properties.

Ecology

Cardamine trichocarpa occurs in open, somewhat moist localities and along roadsides, in mountainous areas at 700–3100 m altitude. It is increasingly spreading as a weed, also at lower altitudes, and is particularly noxious in rice fields. In Uganda and Tanzania average annual rainfall in areas where it grows is 1200–1800 mm.

Genetic resources

Cardamine trichocarpa is widespread and not in danger of genetic erosion.

Prospects

Although several wild Cardamine species are locally popular leafy vegetables in Europe, it is expected that in Africa Cardamine trichocarpa will remain a minor vegetable only of some local importance in mountainous areas.

Major references

• Jonsell, B., 1982. Cruciferae. In: Polhill, R.M. (Editor). Flora of Tropical East Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands. pp. 15–17.

• Katende, A.B., Ssegawa, P. & Birnie, A., 1999. Wild food plants and mushrooms of Uganda. Technical Handbook No 19. Regional Land Management Unit/SIDA, Nairobi, Kenya. 490 pp.

• Ruffo, C.K., Birnie, A. & Tengnäs, B., 2002. Edible wild plants of Tanzania. Technical Handbook No 27. Regional Land Management Unit/ SIDA, Nairobi, Kenya. 766 pp.

Other references

• Burkill, H.M., 1985. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 1, Families A–D. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 960 pp.

• Exell, A.W., 1960. Cruciferae. In: Exell, A.W. & Wild, H. (Editors). Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 1, part 1. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. pp. 182–194.

• Jonsell, B., 1980. Cruciferae (Brassicaceae). Flore du Cameroun. Volume 21. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. pp. 3–24.

• Jonsell, B., 1982. Cruciferae. Flore de Madagascar et des Comores, familles 84–87. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. pp. 3–32.

• Jonsell, B., 2000. Brassicaceae (Cruciferae). In: Edwards, S., Mesfin Tadesse, Demissew Sebsebe & Hedberg, I. (Editors). Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Volume 2, part 1. Magnoliaceae to Flacourtiaceae. The National Herbarium, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Department of Systematic Botany, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. pp. 121–154.

• Robyns, W. & Boutique, R., 1951. Cruciferae. In: Robyns, W., Staner, P., Demaret, F., Germain, R., Gilbert, G., Hauman, L., Homès, M., Jurion, F., Lebrun, J., Vanden Abeele, M. & Boutique, R. (Editors). Flore du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urundi. Spermatophytes. Volume 2. Institut National pour l’Étude Agronomique du Congo belge, Brussels, Belgium. pp. 522–544.

• Yamada, T., 1999. A report of the ethnobotany of the Nyindu in the eastern part of the former Zaire. African Study Monographs 20(1): 1–72.

Author(s)

• P.C.M. Jansen, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Correct citation of this article

Jansen, P.C.M., 2004. Cardamine trichocarpa Hochst. ex A.Rich. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. Grubben, G.J.H. & Denton, O.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands.

Accessed 18 December 2024.