---
title: Flickweed
canonical: https://gardensuperstore.com.au/problem-solver/flickweed/
dateModified: 2026-08-07 09:45:04
summary: "Flickweed (Cardamine hirsuta) is a fast-growing winter annual found in damp garden beds, pots, pathways and thin lawns. Identify its rosette, white flowers and seed pods, then remove plants before they set seed."
type: article
keywords: [Flickweed, Cardamine hirsuta]
---

# Flickweed

> Flickweed (Cardamine hirsuta) is a fast-growing winter annual found in damp garden beds, pots, pathways and thin lawns. Identify its rosette, white flowers and seed pods, then remove plants before they set seed.

*Cardamine hirsuta*

Flickweed, also called hairy bittercress, is a low-growing winter annual broadleaf weed common in garden beds, pots, nursery containers and thin turf across southern Australia. It germinates in autumn, grows through winter and sets seed in spring, often completing its whole life cycle in just a few weeks under mild, moist conditions.

The plant forms a basal rosette of leaves close to the ground, with each leaf made up of several small, rounded leaflets arranged along a stalk, the end leaflet being the largest. Leaves are mid to dark green and slightly hairy, giving the plant its common name of hairy bittercress. From the centre of the rosette, thin upright flowering stems 5 to 30 cm tall emerge, bearing tiny four-petalled white flowers only a few millimetres across. These are followed by narrow, upright seed pods (siliques) about 2 to 2.5 cm long that stand out from the stem.

The seed pods are the key identifying feature. When mature, they are under tension and burst open explosively at the slightest touch, flicking seed up to a metre or more away, which is how the weed spreads so quickly through garden beds and potting mix. A single plant can produce hundreds of seeds, and repeated germination flushes can occur through a mild winter and into spring.

Flickweed is managed by removing plants before seed pods form, since any disturbance to a mature plant scatters seed further. Hand pulling or hoeing young rosettes is effective while the soil is moist, and mulching garden beds thickly helps suppress germination. In turf, maintaining a dense, well-fed lawn through autumn reduces the bare, open ground the weed needs to establish.

## How to identify

- Small rosettes of hairy, divided green leaves appearing low to the ground in garden beds, pots or thin turf, mostly through autumn and winter.
- Thin, upright stems with tiny white flowers, followed by narrow seed pods standing away from the stem.
- Seed pods that burst and flick seed several centimetres to a metre when brushed or disturbed — a simple way to confirm the plant, as this reaction is distinctive.
- Rapid reappearance of seedlings in the same spot after removal, due to the large amount of seed already flicked into surrounding soil or potting mix.
- Can be confused with other small rosette-forming weeds such as shepherd's purse, but shepherd's purse has flat, heart-shaped seed pods rather than narrow upright ones, and its pods do not flick seed when touched.

## Registered products we stock

- [Dismiss | Ornamental Pre-emergent Herbicide](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/dismiss-ornamental-pre-emergent-herbicide/) — Macspred
- [Freehand | Pre-emergent Herbicide](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/freehand-pre-emergent-herbicide/) — BASF
- [Gamma | Herbicide](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/gamma-herbicide/) — PCT SureFire

## Image credits

- [Photo: AnRo0002 via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20160126Cardamine_hirsuta3.jpg)
- [Photo: AnRo0002 via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20150228Cardamine_hirsuta2.jpg)
- [Photo: AnRo0002 via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20150228Cardamine_hirsuta1.jpg)
- [Photo: AnRo0002 via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20160121Cardamine_hirsuta2.jpg)