Sunny Two

Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna)

Our semi-wild garden has plenty of well-established perennials growing in places where they clearly weren't planted. This is one of them — Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna), also known as Fig Buttercup — which is growing in a patch of gravel where our garbage and recycling bins live. It prefers bare, somewhat damp soil, and that small space seems to suit it perfectly. Its sunny, yellow flowers contain anywhere from 7 to 12 glossy petals, and its dark green, kidney-shaped leaves are distinctive. Though many gardeners consider it to be a weed and the fact that it can be poisonous to livestock makes it a bane of farmers and ranchers (and has seen it labeled as a "noxious weed" and banned in some U.S. states), it is often seen as a harbinger of spring here, as it blooms as early as March and continues well into May. Lesser Celandine is native to Europe, north Africa and the Caucasus, and has been introduced to North America. A member of the buttercup family, it contains some fairly potent toxins, and can cause some serious medical issues if ingested. Even contact with crushed or damaged leaves can cause itching, rashes and blistering — not something we've experienced firsthand, fortunately. The toxins can be denatured through drying or boiling, which is presumably how they used to prepare the hemorrhoid treatments that the flower was used for in centuries past!