Latin name: Cardamine pratensis. Also known as Lady's Smock and Milk Maid. Flowers April-June in wet meadows. Leaves and young shoots are edible raw or cooked and are rich in vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin C. They have a bitter and pungent flavour rather like watercress and are nice in salads in small quantities. Flowers and flower buds can also be eaten raw and have a similar cress-like flavour.
Cuckoo flower is seldom used in herbalism, though an infusion of the leaves has been used to treat indigestion and promote appetite. The leaves and the flowering plant are antirheumatic, antiscorbutic, antispasmodic, carminative, digestive, diuretic, stimulant. They are used internally in the treatment of chronic skin complaints, asthma and hysteria.

Location: North Meadow, Cricklade, Wiltshire

Photographer: Anna Stowe