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An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Cardamine californica; photograph (c) lazarus, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) lazarus, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-03-29

Cardamine californica (Nutt.) Greene

American milkmaids; California toothwort; Milkmaids; Tooth wort

Brassicaceae · Oregon, Washington +2

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Cardamine californica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCardamine californica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCardamine californica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCardamine californica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCardamine californica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCardamine californica, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 70 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-3.6°C
Record low -8.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
788mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–51DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes December to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cardamine californica, or milkmaids, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, native to western North America from Washington to California and Baja California. It is common in a variety of habitats including shady slopes, open woodlands, chaparral and grasslands in the winter and early spring. In the San Francisco Bay Area, it is one of the first wildflowers to bloom, with blossoms from January to May.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cardamine californica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (564 mm of 789 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.8 °C against a yearly mean of 14.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

789 mm in the median year at the habitat, 564 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 154 mm, driest month July at 1 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 373 mm to 1,668 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 788 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 789 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 51 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 11, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -3.6 °C, the absolute minimum -8.7 °C, 1,136 frost nights in 44 years, 25.8 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 1.9 °C to 8.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.2 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +327 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cardamine californica through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 4.9 °C; 789 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost36.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-8.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 14–51RH 56–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 528 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C13 / 11–1614 / 11–1716 / 13–1818 / 13–2021 / 15–2423 / 17–2826 / 18–3126 / 19–3125 / 19–2922 / 17–2416 / 13–1913 / 10–16
Night °C5 / 2–86 / 2–97 / 4–98 / 5–1010 / 8–1212 / 10–1514 / 12–1714 / 13–1813 / 12–1711 / 9–148 / 5–115 / 2–9
Rain mm154 / 72–278147 / 80–242113 / 63–21650 / 27–12322 / 7–705 / 2–261 / 0–62 / 1–107 / 5–2240 / 18–9498 / 36–223150 / 58–326
DLI15 / 13–2121 / 19–2631 / 27–3540 / 37–4447 / 44–5051 / 49–5351 / 49–5346 / 44–4838 / 36–4027 / 25–3118 / 15–2414 / 11–19
RH %60 / 53–6461 / 55–6461 / 56–6559 / 53–6459 / 51–6558 / 49–6557 / 46–6657 / 46–6756 / 47–6556 / 50–6358 / 51–6459 / 52–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 528 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1632 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1053:1156 (37.325, -122.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 528 distinct grid cells holding 1632 of the 1634 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1053:1156 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.50_-121.875, lapse-corrected +327 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 560 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeOregon, Washington, California, Mexico Northwest · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker37.808, -122.192 · in the densest population, 1281 records (73% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1750 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1632 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1634 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 381 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 116 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1750 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cardamine californica, photograph 1did not loadCardamine californica, photograph 2did not loadCardamine californica, photograph 3did not loadCardamine californica, photograph 4did not loadCardamine californica, photograph 5did not loadCardamine californica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Diplacus aurantiacus Diplacus aurantiacus Orange bush monkey-flower Photo: CC BY, 66dodgeGrindelia hirsutula Grindelia hirsutula Hairy gumweed Photo: CC BY, Jonathan CurleyHoita strobilina Hoita strobilina Loma prieta Photo: CC0, author not statedRanunculus californicus Ranunculus californicus California buttercup Photo: CC0, author not statedDryopteris arguta Dryopteris arguta Coastal wood fern Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerStachys ajugoides Stachys ajugoides Bugle hedge-nettle Photo: CC BY, Lia Keener

Other Cardamine 37 in the reference

Cardamine amara Cardamine amara Large Bitter-cress Photo: CC BY, Stanislav MurashkinCardamine angustata Cardamine angustata Slender toothwort Photo: CC BY, brettaugustCardamine asarifolia Cardamine asarifolia Asarum-leaved bittercress Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauCardamine bellidifolia Cardamine bellidifolia Alpine bittercress Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerCardamine bipinnata Cardamine bipinnata Brassicaceae Photo: CC BY, Илья РуденкоCardamine bulbifera Cardamine bulbifera Coralroot bittercress Photo: CC BY-SA, C. OppermannCardamine bulbosa Cardamine bulbosa Spring cress Photo: CC BY, Ryan SorrellsCardamine caldeirarum Cardamine caldeirarum Brassicaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedCardamine concatenata Cardamine concatenata Cut-leaved toothwort Photo: CC BY, Alex NovarroCardamine cordifolia Cardamine cordifolia Heart-leaf bittercress Photo: CC BY, Martin PurdyCardamine corymbosa Cardamine corymbosa New Zealand Bitter-cress Photo: CC BY, Colin LeggCardamine diphylla Cardamine diphylla Two-leaved toothwort Photo: CC BY, Loïc Mathieu all 38 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cardamine angulata; Cardamine californica f. grandiflora; Cardamine californica f. microphylla; Cardamine californica f. pygmaea; Cardamine californica subsp. cuneata and 31 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Brassicaceae
Described by
(Nutt.) Greene
Native to
Oregon, Washington, California +1
Wild records
1750 in range · 381 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 41 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (29 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 11 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.50_-121.875, lapse-corrected +327 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 43 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…