lesser celandine

Facts

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        lesser celandine fact sheet

Ranunculus ficaria

• One of the first woodland flowers of the year
   
• The flowers are shiny yellow with eight to twelve petals
   
• The leaves are heart-shaped.
   

Where found

Damp woodland paths and tracks as well as on stream banks and in ditches. It grows well in the shade of hedgerows too.
 

When to look for

• It’s a perennial herb, flowering in March-May
  
  

Poetry featuring lesser celandine

Wordsworth lesser celandine poetry

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 Fabulous lesser celandine facts

• Also known as pilewort, as it was used to treat haemorrhoids
  
  
• The Celts called it Grian (sun) as its petals close up before rain
  
  
• Its leaves are high in vitamin C and were used to prevent scurvy
  
  
• The poet Wordsworth was so fond of lesser celandine flowers that he had them carved on his tomb
  
  
• Found throughout Europe and West Asia, it is now introduced into North America
  
  
• According to the Oxford English Dictionary, celandine comes from the Latin chelidonia, meaning swallow - it was said that the flowers bloomed when the swallows returned