Plant · P-196

Upland Cress

Barbarea verna

Upland cress delivers a peppery watercress flavor from ordinary garden soil, without the running water true watercress demands. Grown to ten weeks old or older, it also lures egg-laying diamondback moths away from nearby brassica crops and then kills the hatching caterpillars with saponins in its leaves - a trap that protects everything planted near it. Sown too young, the same trap becomes a nursery that breeds more moths instead of fewer, so timing decides which way it works. Left to self-sow along bed margins, it naturalizes readily and keeps arriving at the right age on its own, with no annual re-sowing required.