March: Lesser Celandine
glossy yellow petals
Ranunculus ficaria
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Genus: Ranunculus
habitat: hedgerows, open woodlands or harf shady place, damp soil
distribution: throughout the British Isles
March. The air is still chilly but the sun shines brighter and longer day by day.
The spring comes quite early here in the south east Wales. To begin with the pretty white snowdrops, we can enjoy various yellow spring flowers. We enjoy the early spring's yellow splash of of hamamelis, aconite, forsythia, daffodil, crocus, primrose and lesser celandine. The wild plant of February last year was primrose. While the flower is creamy yellow, lesser celandine's is bright lemon yellow.
Lesser Celandine is of the buttercup family, but its glossy bright flowers appear at the first in the family in February (even at the end of January).While common butter cup has long stems, lesser celandine has shorter stems. The heart-shaped leaves lay usually on or toward the ground.
The plant is hardy and spreads everywhere, from gardens to open woodlands, banks of streams, hedgerows etc. They grow from root tubers and spread mainly with tubercles (Celandine/RHS). This causes the ground is rapidly covered with them. A small patch of our front garden used to have green grass, but the lesser celandine took over only in a couple of years. Many colonies are seen around here and there. Once they flower, the glossy green carpet turns bright yellow.
Here is a short poem of Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies of the Spring (Cicely Mary Barker, The Complete Book of the Flower-Fairies, Warne, 2002).
The Song of the Celandine Fairy
Before the hawthorn leaves unfold,
Or buttercups put forth their gold,
By every sunny footpath shine
The stars of Lesser Celandine.
Ranunculus ficaria
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Genus: Ranunculus
habitat: hedgerows, open woodlands or harf shady place, damp soil
distribution: throughout the British Isles
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Genus: Ranunculus
habitat: hedgerows, open woodlands or harf shady place, damp soil
distribution: throughout the British Isles
March. The air is still chilly but the sun shines brighter and longer day by day.
The spring comes quite early here in the south east Wales. To begin with the pretty white snowdrops, we can enjoy various yellow spring flowers. We enjoy the early spring's yellow splash of of hamamelis, aconite, forsythia, daffodil, crocus, primrose and lesser celandine. The wild plant of February last year was primrose. While the flower is creamy yellow, lesser celandine's is bright lemon yellow.
Lesser Celandine is of the buttercup family, but its glossy bright flowers appear at the first in the family in February (even at the end of January).While common butter cup has long stems, lesser celandine has shorter stems. The heart-shaped leaves lay usually on or toward the ground.
The plant is hardy and spreads everywhere, from gardens to open woodlands, banks of streams, hedgerows etc. They grow from root tubers and spread mainly with tubercles (Celandine/RHS). This causes the ground is rapidly covered with them. A small patch of our front garden used to have green grass, but the lesser celandine took over only in a couple of years. Many colonies are seen around here and there. Once they flower, the glossy green carpet turns bright yellow.
Here is a short poem of Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies of the Spring (Cicely Mary Barker, The Complete Book of the Flower-Fairies, Warne, 2002).
The Song of the Celandine Fairy
Before the hawthorn leaves unfold,
Or buttercups put forth their gold,
By every sunny footpath shine
The stars of Lesser Celandine.
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