PlantFiles: Shepherd's-purse
Capsella bursa-pastoris

An invasive but useful plant for the wild food enthusiast. It can be used as a salad ingredient, a cooked green or a seasoning. Add the young leaves to salads or prepare like spinach before the flowers appear. Use the dried seedpods as a pepperlike seasoning.

An invasive little weed that seems to pop up everywhere...it is common throughout the US and Canada. Introduced from Europe...probably as a stow-away in baggage or clothing, it is now common throughout the world.


The common name Shepherds-purse comes from the seed capsules, which resemble their namesake. 'Capsella' means 'little box' and bursa-pastoris means 'purse of the shepherd.

Neat little plant, and, as with all plants, it is only as invasive as the grower allows it to be. Grows quite will here in Zone 4

Very tasty vegetable, and productive. :)

A very invasive weed, this plant is difficult to identify until it makes seedpods. The foliage can be from light green through almost black. Seeds germinate anytime the ground is not frozen, and it remains a rosette until flowering, persisting through the coldest winters.

Do not dispose of this plant after it starts to flower in a compost pile: it has the ability to finish ripening seed even in this condition.

A widespread weed often found in gardens and waste places, distinguished by small, heart-shaped fruits. A preparation from the leaves has long been used against inflammation and bleeding, and is still found in some medicines.