Celandine

Papaveraceae

LIFE FORM: Biennial

NATIVITY: Europe

VEGETATIVE CHARACTERISTICS:

In its first year the plant produces a rosette of irregularly lobed leaves, dark green leaves that yield an orange sap when broken; in flower, the plant can grow to about 2 feet tall.

FLOWERS:

A large, terminal inflorescence of bright yellow flowers produced in spring.

FRUIT/DISPERSAL AGENTS:

Slender fruit pods explode when ripe, widely dispersing seeds.

ECOLOGICAL PREFERENCE:

Grows best in sunny, moist, nutrient-rich soil. Prefers minimally maintained public parks and open space; vacant lots and rubble dump sites; freshwater wetlands, ponds and streams.

ENVIRONMENTAL FUNCTION:

Disturbance-adapted colonizer.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:

The orange sap is used medicinally to treat worts in Europe; also used in Chinese medicine. Included by Greek physician Pedanius Discorides in his five volume herbal, De Materia Medica, which was written in the first century AD and remained in active use into the 1600s.