Shepherd's purse
Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 38 cm
- wide
- 13 cm
Brassicaceae
Formerly Bursa bursa-pastoris, Nasturtium bursa-pastoris, Rodschiedia bursa-pastoris, Thlaspi bursa-pastoris
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Annual or biennialKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Temp. Eurasia, N. AfricaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 15 cm to 61 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 10 cm to 15 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- WhiteRead from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
Not known yet: coldest it survives, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Chinese
- 薺, 荠, 芥菜
- Simplified Chinese
- 荠, 菱角菜, 荠菜
- Macedonian
- овчарска торбичка
- Dutch
- herderstasje, Herderstasje
- Asturian
- bolsa de pastor
- Czech
- kokoška pastuší tobolka
- German
- Gemeines Hirtentäschen, Gewöhnliches Hirtentäschel
- Finnish
- rikkalutukka
- French
- bourse-à-pasteur commune
- Slovenian
- navadni plešec
- Afrikaans
- wintersbossie, herderstassie, geldbeursie
- Southern Sotho
- sebitsa
Where this comes from
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 2.5
- 3D model: Capsella bursa-pastoris (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.