Lesser Celandine is one of the most welcome sights of early spring. Its glossy yellow flowers can spread across damp woodland floors, hedge banks and stream sides while much of the surrounding vegetation is only beginning to wake after winter.
It belongs to Ranunculaceae, the buttercup family. Plantlife and BSBI commonly use the scientific name Ficaria verna, while Kew and The Wildlife Trusts currently treat it as Ranunculus ficaria. Both names refer to the Lesser Celandine described here.
Identification
- A low-growing perennial, usually no more than about 25 cm tall.
- Bright, glossy yellow flowers, generally around 2–3 cm across.
- Flowers usually have eight to twelve narrow petals, giving them a star-like appearance.
- Leaves are dark green, shiny and heart- to kidney-shaped, carried on long stalks.
- Plants often grow in dense patches or carpets.
- The flowers open most fully in sunshine and tend to close in dull or wet weather.
The combination of shining yellow flowers and glossy heart-shaped leaves makes Lesser Celandine quite distinctive once it is in flower.
Flower structure
Each Lesser Celandine bloom is a single flower rather than a composite flower head. The glossy petals surround numerous free stamens, a characteristic commonly encountered in the buttercup family.
At the centre is a cluster of separate carpels, another useful Ranunculaceae feature. The flower is usually radially symmetrical, so it can be divided into similar halves through more than one plane.
The petals can look almost lacquered when sunlight catches them, which gives flowering patches their particularly bright appearance.
Leaves, tubers and bulbils
The leaves are rounded to heart-shaped, usually glossy dark green and sometimes mottled with paler markings. Each leaf blade is carried on a long petiole.
Below ground, the plant has small fleshy tubers that store reserves and allow it to emerge rapidly in late winter and early spring.
Some forms also reproduce vegetatively by producing small cream-coloured bulbils in the leaf axils. These can detach and grow into new plants. Not every Lesser Celandine produces obvious bulbils, so their absence does not rule the species out.
Habitat
Lesser Celandine favours moist, reasonably fertile ground. Look for it in:
- deciduous woodland and woodland edges
- shady hedge banks
- stream and river banks
- ditches
- damp grassland and meadows
- parks, churchyards and gardens
It is widespread across Britain and Ireland and can become locally abundant where conditions suit it.
Flowering period
Lesser Celandine is among the earliest native wildflowers to bloom. It is most often seen flowering from February to May, although flowers can appear earlier during mild winters.
It is a spring ephemeral: the plant completes most of its visible growth early in the year and then dies back as spring gives way to summer.
Similar species
Marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris) also belongs to Ranunculaceae and has glossy yellow flowers and rounded leaves. It is generally a much larger, more robust plant of very wet ground, with broad yellow petal-like sepals rather than the many narrow glossy petals of Lesser Celandine.
Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) can flower at a similar time and may occur naturalised near gardens. Its yellow flower sits above a conspicuous collar of deeply divided green leaves.
Greater Celandine (Chelidonium majus) shares the word “celandine” but is unrelated. It belongs to the poppy family, grows much taller and has four yellow petals rather than the star-like flowers of Lesser Celandine.
Folklore & history
Lesser Celandine has long been regarded as a herald of spring. Plantlife notes that the name “celandine” comes from the Greek chelidon, meaning “swallow”, because the flower traditionally appears around the same time that swallows return. Its early flowering also gave rise to the old nickname “spring messenger”.
The date 21 February has sometimes been called Celandine Day. The tradition is associated with the naturalist Gilbert White, who noted the first Lesser Celandines appearing around that date at Selborne in Hampshire in the late eighteenth century.
William Wordsworth was especially fond of Lesser Celandine. Although he is far more famous for daffodils, he wrote three poems about this small yellow flower: The Small Celandine, To the Same Flower and To the Small Celandine.
Another old name is Pilewort. This comes from the traditional doctrine of signatures: the plant’s small knobbly tubers were thought to resemble haemorrhoids, and the plant became associated with their treatment in traditional herbal practice.
Wildlife
Because it flowers so early, Lesser Celandine provides nectar and pollen at a time when relatively few other wildflowers are available. Queen bumblebees and other early-emerging insects visit the flowers on mild spring days.