Question: Plants growing rather abundantly in moist woods in CT. Thought it was Cardamine diphylla, but the (2) leaves are alternately …
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Question
Plants growing rather abundantly in moist woods in CT. Thought it was Cardamine diphylla, but the (2) leaves are alternately arranged on the stem. Not sure how to differentiate between Cardamine diphylla and Cardamine maxima, given the leaf number and arrangement.
Answer
Dear shpasi, telling Cardamine diphylla and C. maxima apart can sometimes be tricky. There are several ways for you to tell, including length and orientation of leaf margin cilia and rhizome morphology. If you get a chance to return to this population, check to see if the rhizome (i.e., underground stem) is continuous in thickness or with constrictions along its length. There are images of these on the Go Botany website (look at the rhizome image of C. diphylla for continuous and C. incisa for constricted and enlarged). Feel free send additional images if you are not sure to ahaines[at]newenglandwild.org. For what it is worth, your plants look most like C. diphylla.
