Land cress (Barbarea verna) — also called upland cress, American cress, early winter cress or creasy greens — is a fast-growing, cold-hardy biennial in the cabbage and mustard family, grown on ordinary soil as a hardier, earth-grown stand-in for the semi-aquatic watercress it closely mimics in flavour. Its glossy, deeply lobed dark-green leaves carry the same clean, sharp, peppery-mustardy bite, eaten raw in salads and sandwiches, wilted into soups, or, in the American South, simmered as a pot green.