Description: This native perennial plant is about 4-8" tall, producing from its rootstock both basal leaves and fertile shoots with cauline leaves. The basal leaves are separate from the fertile shoots; they help to store energy for next year's fertile shoots. A fertile shoot consists of a single flowering stalk with a whorl of 3 leaves. Each leaf is up to 3" long and across, but palmately cleft into 3-5 narrow lobes with dentate teeth along the margins. The basal leaves have a similar appearance to the cauline leaves; both types of leaves are largely hairless.
The central stalk is glabrous or slightly
pubescent and unbranched. It terminates into a cyme or short raceme of white
flowers. This inflorescence is rather floppy; the flowers open up and become
more erect in the presence of sunshine on warm spring days. Each flower is
about ½" across when fully open, consisting of 4 white petals, 4 green
or purplish green sepals, several stamens with conspicuous yellow anthers, and
a single pistil. The petals are lanceolate-oblong and sometimes tinted with
pink or light purple. The sepals are oblong and shorter than the petals. The
slender pedicels are at least as long as the flowers. The blooming period
occurs during mid-spring and lasts about 2 weeks. The flowers are quite
fragrant. Each flower is replaced by an elongated seedpod that has a short beak
(i.e., a silique); this seedpod is held more or less erect. The seeds are
arranged in a single row within the seedpods; they are oval-shaped and somewhat
flattened. The root system produces fleshy rhizomes that are jointed and
knobby; they are parallel to the surface of the ground and fairly shallow. In
addition to these rhizomes and their secondary roots, the root
system produces
small fleshy tubers. This plant often forms vegetative colonies from its
spreading rhizomes; it also reproduces by seed.
Cultivation: Its easiest to start plants from pieces
of the rhizome. These should be planted a little below the surface of the
ground in an area with sparse ground cover that receives shade during the
summer. Cutleaf Toothwort develops quickly and is one of the earlier spring
wildflowers of woodlands. The foliage turns yellow and fades away by the end of
spring. This plant typically grows in dappled sunlight before the trees leaf
out; it prefers moist to mesic conditions and a rich loamy soil with decaying
leaves.
Range & Habitat: Cutleaf
Toothwort is a common plant that occurs in nearly every county of Illinois.
Habitats include deciduous mesic woodlands, floodplain woodlands, and wooded
bluffs. The presence of this species in a woodlands indicates that its soil has
never been plowed under or subjected to heavy construction activities. However,
this species can survive some disturbance caused by occasional grazing and less
disruptive activities of human society. When the introduced Alliaria
petiolata (Garlic Mustard) invades a woodlands, this is one of the spring
wildflowers that declines in abundance.
Faunal
Associations: The nectar of the flowers attracts both long-tongued
and short-tongued bees, including honey bees, bumblebees, Mason bees, Cuckoo
bees (Nomadine), Miner bees, Halictid bees, and Andrenid bees. Less often, the
nectar of the flowers attracts early spring butterflies and Bombylius
major (Giant Bee Fly). Short-tongued bees also collect pollen from the
flowers. The caterpillars of the butterfly Pieris napi oleraceae
(Mustard White) feed on the foliage of Dentaria spp. (Toothworts);
however, this butterfly has not been observed in Illinois since the late 19th
century. However, it still exists in Wisconsin. The tubers of Toothworts were a
minor food source of Ectopistes migratorius (Passenger Pigeon); this
bird species became extinct during the early 20th century.
Photographic Location: Mesic deciduous woodlands in
Urbana, Illinois.
Comments: Cutleaf Toothwort is the only native species of Toothwort in Illinois. Other species of Toothwort can be found in areas to the east and north of Illinois, including Indiana. The species Dentaria diphylla (Two-Leaved Toothwort) has been observed in Kane County, Illinois, where it is probably adventive. This latter species has two cauline leaves on each flowering stalk, while Cutleaf Toothwort usually has three. Both the basal and cauline leaves of Two-Leaved Toothwort have broader lobes than those found on the leaves of Cutleaf Toothwort. Some authorities have merged the Toothworts into the genus Cardamine (Bitter Cress), in which case the scientific name of Cutleaf Toothwort is Cardamine concatenata.