Ficaria verna

[4][5] Native to Europe and Western Asia, it is now introduced in North America, where it is known by the common name fig buttercup and considered an invasive species.

[6][7][8][9] The plant is poisonous if ingested raw and potentially fatal to grazing animals and livestock such as horses, cattle, and sheep.

[12] Lesser celandine is a hairless perennial plant to about 25 cm (9.8 in) high, growing in clumps of 4-10 short stems, on which the leaves are spirally-arranged or all basal.

Some clumps give rise to long stolons to 10 cm (3.9 in) or more, allowing vegetative spread to produce extensive carpets of plants.

[14] It produces large actinomorphic (radially symmetrical) flowers with a diameter of up to 3–5 cm (1.2–2.0 in), on long stalks arising individually from the leaf axils or in loose cymes at the top of the stem.

[17] Lesser celandine grows on land that is seasonally wet or flooded, especially in sandy soils, but is not found in permanently waterlogged sites.

[18] In both shaded woodlands and open areas, Ficaria verna begins growth in the winter when temperatures are low and days are short.

[21][12] Erosion and flood events are particularly effective means of spread, as the plants are very successful at colonizing low-lying floodplains once deposited.

ficariiformis are tetraploid and capable of colonizing new areas much faster because they produce bulbils in their leaf axils[23]: 126 [20] in addition to root tubers.

[10] Lesser celandine is pollinated by bees, small beetles, and flies, including Apis mellifera, Bibio johannis, Phora, and Meligethes.

[19] Since Ficaria verna emerges well before most native species, it has a developmental advantage which allows it to establish and dominate natural areas rapidly.

[27] In the United States, where lesser celandine is considered a plant pest to gardens, lawns, and natural areas, many governmental agencies have attempted to slow the spread of this species with limited success.

[28] USDA APHIS considers Ficaria verna to be a high-risk weed that could spread across 79% of the United States, anticipating possible impacts to threatened and endangered riparian species.

[36] In one case, a patient experienced acute hepatitis and jaundice when taking untreated lesser celandine extracts internally as an herbal remedy for hemorrhoids.

[42][43] Lesser celandine is still recommended in several "current" herbal guides for treatment of hemorrhoids by applying an ointment of raw leaves as a cream or lanolin to the affected area.

[42] Mesolithic Hunter gatherers in Europe consumed the roots of the plant as a source of carbohydrates boiled, fried or roasted.

[53] C. S. Lewis mentions celandines in a key passage of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Aslan comes to Narnia and the whole wood passes "in a few hours or so from January to May".

Coming suddenly round a corner into a glade of silver birch trees Edmund saw the ground covered in all directions with little yellow flowers - celandines".

They appear to be a favorite of the protagonist, Paul Morel: ...going down the hedgeside with the girl, he noticed the celandines, scalloped splashes of gold, on the side of the ditch.

Closed-up flowerhead of lesser celandine, showing the sepals and outside of the petals.
Flowers appear in early spring
Typical root tubers: these structures separate easily and can become new plants, allowing the plant to colonize new areas rapidly
Bulbils form in the leaf axils of some subspecies after flowering
An illustration showing some of the fungal and oomycetous pathogens that infect Ficaria verna .
As an invasive species it forms a dense carpet in a floodplain forest in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania
Killynether wood, Northern Ireland
Near České Budějovice , Czech Republic