Appearance
"Capsella bursa-pastoris" plants grow from a rosette of lobed leaves at the base. From the base emerges a stem about 0.2–0.5 m tall, which bears a few pointed leaves which partly grasp the stem. The flowers, which appear in any month of the year in the British Isles,: 56 are white and small, 2.5 mm in diameter, with four petals and six stamens. They are borne in loose racemes, and produce flattened, two-chambered seed pods known as silicles, which are triangular to heart-shaped, each containing several seeds.Like a number of other plants in several plant families, its seeds contain a substance known as mucilage, a condition known as myxospermy. Recently, this has been demonstrated experimentally to perform the function of trapping nematodes, as a form of 'protocarnivory'.
"Capsella bursa-pastoris" is closely related to the model organism such as "Arabidopsis thaliana" and is also used as a model organism, due to the variety of genes expressed throughout its life cycle that can be compared to genes that are well studied in "A. thaliana". Unlike most flowering plants, it flowers almost all year round. Like other annual ruderals exploiting disturbed ground, "C. bursa-pastoris" reproduces entirely from seed, has a long soil seed bank, and short generation time, and is capable of producing several generations each year.
Uses
"Capsella bursa-pastoris" gathered from the wild or cultivated has many uses, including for food, to supplement animal feed, for cosmetics, and in traditional medicine—reportedly to stop bleeding. The plant can be eaten raw; the leaves are best when gathered young. Native Americans ground it into a meal and made a beverage from it.References:
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