Capsella bursa-pastoris, known as shepherd's purse because of its triangular flat fruits, which are purse-like, is a small annual and ruderal flowering plant in the mustard family (Brassicaceae).

[2] Scientists have referred to this species as a protocarnivore, since it has been found that its seeds attract and kill nematodes as a means to locally enrich the soil.

[3] The flowers, which appear in any month of the year in the British Isles,[4] are white and small, 2.5 mm (1⁄8 in) in diameter, with four petals and six stamens.

The species was apparently not included in the ancient pharmacopoeia with William Turner stating in 1548 that it and twenty or thirty others had come to be known as medicinal plants from Arab sources.

[17] It was formally described by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in his seminal publication Species Plantarum in 1753, and then published by Friedrich Kasimir Medikus in Pflanzen-Gattungen (Pfl.-Gatt.)

[12] C. bursa-pastoris is the second-most prolific wild plant in the world,[10] and is common on cultivated ground and waysides and meadows.

In the Ming-dynasty famine survival guide Jiuhuang bencao, it was recommended to mix jìcài with water and other ingredients to make bread-like bing.

The savory leaf is stir-fried with nian gao rice cakes and other ingredients or as part of the filling in wontons.