About Cardamine californica (Nutt.) Greene
Cardamine californica is an herbaceous perennial plant that reaches approximately 1 foot (0.3 m) in height. Its flowers grow on a raceme inflorescence; each individual flower is around 1/2 inch in diameter, with four petals that range in color from white to pink. This species closes its petals in late afternoon as the sun sets, and bends its pedicel before rain to protect its pollen. When hand pollination was conducted on two populations of milkmaids (the common name for this plant) at the San Francisco Presidio, seed set increased from 8% to 85%, and seeds took approximately 53 days to ripen.
