The best tactic with all annuals, whether shaggy soldier, hairy bittercress or grass, is to be vigilant.

These conditions are prevalent in nursery or garden centre plants, and Hairy Bittercress seeds may be introduced with those plants.

Hairy Bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta, is an ephemeral plant native to Europe and Asia, but also present in North America.

He held up a bit of Cardamine hirsuta, or hairy bittercress, and stared at its exploding seedheads with the sort of murderous loathing that could only be mustered by a man who had spent years rooting out the little blighters.

I think of weeds by their growth habits, splitting them into two groups: pernicious perennials (such as docks, Japanese knotweed, creeping buttercups, marestail, bindweed and bramble), and annuals and ephemerals (fat hen, cleavers, chickweed and hairy bittercress).

Cardamine hirsuta (I)

Hairy Bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta, is an ephemeral plant native to Europe and Asia, but also present in North America.