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| Cardamine cordifolia |
This is known by the common name of Heartleaf Bittercress, which is a bit of a misnomer, since the flavor of the leaves is more hot than bitter. In fact they taste just like horseradish! I happen to like horseradish a lot, so I really enjoyed finding these leaves, and they make a good addition to sandwiches.
I have always found this plant in or beside shallow mountain streams. The leaf shape is vaguely heart-shaped, but with several lobes breaking up the heart's outline. One distinctive feature of this plant is that the main veins of the leaf go all the way to the tips of the lobes, where (looking in a microscope) they project slightly as enlarged glands. These glands appear to the unaided eye as white dots at the tips of the lobes.
I have tried cooking the leaves. After about 5 minutes they were quite bitter, but after 10-15 minutes (at 10,000 feet elevation; your times may vary) they were much better tasting. There was still a hint of bitterness, but it was more of an exotic flavor, and I enjoyed eating them. The bitterness comes out in the water, so you need to throw out the water afterwards. Cooking in one change of water would work well, but adding directly to a stew without pre-cooking would be a very bad thing to do. The stems are very tough and do not soften with cooking.
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