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Lesser Celandine

Ficaria verna

Summary 6

Lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria, syn. Ficaria grandiflora Robert, Ficaria verna Huds.) is a low-growing, hairless perennial plant, with fleshy dark green, heart-shaped leaves. The plant is found throughout Europe and west Asia and is now introduced in North America, where it is often considered invasive. It prefers bare, damp ground and in the UK it can be seen as a persistent garden weed. The flowers are orange, turning yellow as they age.

Description and biology 7

  • Plant: perennial herbaceous spring ephemeral plant with thick tuberous roots and bulblets.
  • Leaves: shiny, dark green, kidney-shaped, and stalked.
  • Flowers, fruits and seeds: glossy, butter-yellow flowers appear in March and April supported on delicate stalks above the leaves. Aboveground portions of lesser celandine die back by early June.
  • Spreads: primarily by bulblets and underground tubers. The tiny cream-colored bulblets are attached to leafstalks and are easily dislodged from the plant. A mass of small, gray, fingerlike tuberous roots underlies each plant. Bulblets and tubers are easily carried downstream during flood events and may be unearthed and scattered by the digging activities of some animals.
  • Look-alikes: marsh marigold (Caltha palustris), a native relative in the buttercup family, wood or celandine poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) and greater celandine (Chelidonium majus), native and non-native members of the poppy family, respectively.

Ecological threat in the united states 8

Fig buttercup is a vigorous growing vernal plant that forms large, dense patches in floodplain forests and some upland sites, displacing many native plant species, especially those with the similar spring-flowering life cycle. Spring ephemerals complete the reproductive part of their life cycle and most of their above-ground development in the increasing light of late winter and spring, before woody plants leaf out and shade the forest floor. Some examples of native spring ephemerals include bloodroot, wild ginger, spring beauty, harbinger-of-spring, twinleaf, squirrel-corn, trout lily, trilliums, Virginia bluebells, and many, many others. These plants provide critical nectar and pollen for native pollinators, and fruits and seeds for other native insects and wildlife species. Because fig buttercup emerges well in advance of the native species, it has a developmental advantage which allows it to establish and overtake areas rapidly.

Habitat in the united states 9

Fig buttercup occurs in low open woods, floodplains, meadows and waste places and seems to prefer sandy soils.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Steve Chilton, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/73779416@N00/436981696
  2. (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.biopix.com/photos/SDL-Ranunculus-ficaria-00004.jpg
  3. (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.biopix.com/photos/JCS-Ranunculus-ficaria-65687.JPG
  4. (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.biopix.com/PhotosMedium/JCS%20Ranunculus%20ficaria%2047356.JPG
  5. (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.biopix.com/photos/SDL-Ranunculus-ficaria-00003.jpg
  6. Adapted by Kate Wagner from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficaria_verna
  7. (c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/22733841
  8. (c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/22948806
  9. (c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/22948808

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