CAT-00075
Native wintercress
Barbarea australis
No main photo selected
Catalog fields
- Genus
- Barbarea
- Photo
- Not recorded
- Edible
- Yes
- layout
- single
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Published
- Yes
- Food group
- Leaf vegetable
- Latin name
- Barbarea australis
- Fruit photo
- Not recorded
- Plant title
- Native wintercress
- Source URLs
- https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Barbarea%20australis | https://tuckerbush.com.au/plants/vegetable-plants/; https://tuckerbush.com.au/native-wintercress-barbarea-australis/ Open source ↗ Open source 2 ↗ Open source 3 ↗
- Catalogue ID
- CAT-00075
- Mature width
- 30cm
- Native range
- A rare species endemic in Tas.
- Plant family
- Brassicaceae
- Supplier SKU
- Not recorded
- Listing group
- Nursery-listed / regional edible
- Mature height
- 30-50cm
- Native states
- TAS
- Original list
- No
- Research date
- 10/10/2026
- Research notes
- Profile enriched from botanical/nursery sources. Dimensions are unpruned regional estimates where available; missing measurements remain explicit. Seasons are regional guides and vary with climate, location, cultivar and plant maturity. Drought and cultivation guidance are qualitative garden inferences, not measured ratings.
- Evidence status
- Nursery food-use source; preparation detail review pending
- Fruiting season
- Pods follow flowering.
- Background photo
- Not recorded
- Edible component
- Leaves
- Flowering season
- Species-specific period not yet confirmed.
- Brief description
- Leafy mustard-family herb with peppery edible foliage.
- Drought tolerance
- Low; prefers moist soil.
- Preparation notes
- Use correctly identified cultivated leaves in salads or cooked dishes; avoid disturbing threatened wild plants.
- Flower description
- Flower appearance not yet confirmed from the reviewed species-specific sources.
- General cultivation
- General guidance (qualitative): Best trialled as a cool-season herb with afternoon shade and irrigation.
- Botanical description
- Annual to 1 m high, erect, glabrous. Rosette leaves unknown; lower cauline leaves lyrate-pinnatisect with 2 or 3 pairs of lobes. Sepals 2–4 mm long. Petals 2–8 mm long. Siliqua linear, 20–40 mm long, 2–2.5 mm wide, c. 12 per 10 cm of rachis; style 0.5–1 mm long; pedicels erect to spreading, thin, 5–7 mm long. Seeds broadly elliptic, 1.5–2 mm long, margin tuberculate.
- Other botanical names
- Not recorded
- Attracts birds and bugs
- Native bees and insects visit flowers; canopy shelters birds.
- Flora of Australia profile
- https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Barbarea%20australis Open source ↗
- Fruit type and description
- Slender dry pods with seeds; leaves are the principal harvest.
- Flora of Australia citation
- H.J. Hewson. Barbarea australis. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Canberra. https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Barbarea%20australis (accessed 2026-10-14). Copyright Commonwealth of Australia; CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). HTML formatting removed; species-level context added where noted. Open source ↗ Open source 2 ↗
- Flora of Australia retrieved
- 14/10/2026