Garden cress

Lepidium sativum · Cabbage family

Plant portrait

Garden cress is a small annual whose leaves become more divided as it grows.

Harvested part

The young shoots and leaves.

What to watch for

Compare the simple first leaves with the more divided leaves of the developed plant.

Growth stages of the garden cress

Plotilo illustrates the garden cress in 5 stages in 3D: seed, small sprout, young plant, growing and harvest. The models show typical shapes; they do not predict how long growth takes.

Seed
Starting from a seed. It is shown on the surface to make it visible in this illustration.
Small sprout
A short first stem and its first small leaves emerge.
Young plant
The young plant carries more leaves and starts to take its own shape.
Growing
Leaves and stems develop. Their shape depends on the species.
Harvest
An illustration of the harvested part. Roots are made visible for clarity; this image does not confirm actual maturity.

See the garden cress in 3D

Same botanical family

Same botanical family as the garden cress (the cabbage family): the radish, the broccoli, the cauliflower, the cabbage, the turnip, the Chinese cabbage and 8 more plants from the catalogue. Gardeners usually avoid growing the same family in the same spot several years in a row: that is the idea behind crop rotation.