In message , David in Normandy
writes
I've planted some garden cress. At least that is what the (French) seed
packet says, and the youngest leaves looks like the picture on the
packet. However, I've googled it and there seems to be several
different plants called garden cress. The closest one to mine seems to
be Lepidium sativum but that apparently has white / pink flowers and
mine has yellow flowers.

I was beginning to wonder if there were some weed seeds mixed in the
packet as the leaves on the young plants seem different to those on the
flower spikes, the latter being more pointy tipped; however closer
examination reveals both types of leaf to be on the same plant. I
haven't found any really clear photos on Google to help with definitive
plant ID. Anyone recognise the pictures?

Yellow flower spikes:

http://www.avisoft.co.uk/Photos/Hpim7922a.jpg

Smaller non-flowering rosettes:

http://www.avisoft.co.uk/Photos/Hpim7927a.jpg


Yellow-flowered crucifers are, in my experience, difficult to identify.
However Barbarea verna goes by the name of American cress, land cress or
American land cress (even though it originates in Europe).

Your photographs aren't obviously not of this species, but I can't
exclude any of the other species of this genus, nor, in the absence of
fruits, the yellow cresses (Rorippa sp.)

Wikipedia Francais gives the French vernacular names for Barbarea verna
as cresson de terre (land cress) or cresson de jardin (garden cress),
which is support for identification as Barbarea verna (but how many
other plants do the French also call cresson de jardin?)
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley