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WildBristol.uk - Discovering Wildlife in Bristol

Shepherd's-purse type 16 - Capsella bursa-pastoris type 16

Favourite Photos

image species author location uploaded taken select
Shepherd's-purse type 16 Shepherd's-purse type 16 - Capsella bursa-pastoris type 16 dylan Floating Harbour and River Avon 7 Mar 2026, 4:31 p.m. 6 Mar 2026, 3:20 p.m.
Shepherd's-purse type 16 Shepherd's-purse type 16 - Capsella bursa-pastoris type 16 dylan Floating Harbour and River Avon 7 Mar 2026, 4:31 p.m. 6 Mar 2026, 3:20 p.m.
Shepherd's-purse type 16 Shepherd's-purse type 16 - Capsella bursa-pastoris type 16 dylan Bristol 21 Aug 2025, 12:57 a.m. 21 Mar 2025, 1:39 p.m.
Shepherd's-purse type 16 Shepherd's-purse type 16 - Capsella bursa-pastoris type 16 dylan Bristol 21 Aug 2025, 12:57 a.m. 21 Mar 2025, 1:41 p.m.
Shepherd's-purse type 16 Shepherd's-purse type 16 - Capsella bursa-pastoris type 16 dylan Bristol 21 Aug 2025, 12:57 a.m. 21 Mar 2025, 1:41 p.m.
Shepherd's-purse type 16 Shepherd's-purse type 16 - Capsella bursa-pastoris type 16 dylan Bristol 21 Aug 2025, 12:57 a.m. 21 Mar 2025, 1:48 p.m.

Species Description

Appears to be locally frequent around the Floating Harbour; indicating it probably arrived here via the city's past shipping trade. Online representation shows it to be present around London, Oxford, Belgium and the Netherlands. It is probably present around city ports and docks throughout the UK. A squat plant with almost succulent leaves, pinnatifid, lobes rounded, tightly squashed together and overlapping (a bit like endive); stem short, simple and inconspicuous, instead the flowers often arise directly from the rosette; sepals magenta in bud, becoming green with magenta margins at maturity, hairy; petals narrowly obovate c. 2 x as long as wide; capsules rosey-red, obovate-rounded, concave-sided, scarcely notched, style well-exserted, held on long whispy, ascending and slightly outward-curving pedicels >c.5 x in length.

A distinctive squat compact plant with thick leathery glabrous leaves which are divided into crowded overlapping lobes which are gibbous but become less so with age, have a broad rounded terminal lobe and purple petioles.

Recorded from Bristol Harbour near Hotwells by Maico Weites and this

Appears to be the same as some photos on GBIF of Capsella rubella taken from the Netherlands by Sipke Gonggrijp but it's not C. rubella.

Also this by Peter Ceulemans and this by Jasper Leys from Belgium.

And this taken from London by Daniel Cahen.

Also a match for this, this, this, this, this by from London and Oxford, Joss Carr.

A match for this, this by Joh and this by Collala and this by Jochen Knabben from Germany.