Caltha palustris
Encyclopedia
Caltha palustris is a herbaceous
perennial
plant
of the buttercup family
, native to marsh
es, fen
s, ditches and wet woodland
in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere
.
It becomes most luxuriant in partial shade, but is rare on peat
. In the UK, it is probably one of the most ancient British native plants, surviving the glaciations and flourishing after the last retreat of the ice, in a landscape inundated with glacial meltwaters.
Height is up to 80 centimetres (31.5 in) tall. The leaves
are rounded to kidney-shaped, 3–20 cm (1.2–7.9 in) across, with a bluntly serrated margin and a thick, waxy texture. Stems are hollow.
The flower
s are yellow, 2–5 cm (1–2 in) diameter, with 4-9 (mostly 5) petal
-like sepal
s and many yellow stamen
s; they appear in early spring to late summer. The flowers are visited by a great variety of insects for pollen
and for the nectar secreted
from small depressions, one on each side of each carpel.
Carpels form into green sac-like follicle
s to 1 cm long, each opening to release several seed
s.
Caltha palustris is a highly polymorphic
species, showing continuous and independent variation in many features. Forms in the UK may be divided into two subspecies
: Caltha palustris subsp. palustris, and Caltha palustris subsp. minor.
It is sometimes considered a weed
in clayey garden soils, where every piece of its root will survive and spread. In warm free-draining soils, it simply dies away.
As is the case with many members of the Ranunculaceae, all parts of the plant are poison
ous and can be irritant. Skin rashes and dermatitis
have been reported from excessive handling of the plant.
In the UK, Caltha palustris is known by a variety of common names, varying by geographical region. These include Marsh Marigold and Kingcup (the two most frequently used common names), Mayflower, May Blobs, Mollyblobs, Pollyblobs, Horse Blob, Water Blobs, Water Bubbles, Gollins. Balfae (in Caithness) and the Publican. The common name of marigold refers to its use in churches in medieval times at Easter time as a tribute to the Virgin Mary, as in Mary gold.
The specific name palustris, Latin for "of the marsh
", indicates its common habitat.
Richard Mabey
, in Flora Britannica, describes Caltha palustris thus:
In North America Caltha palustris is sometimes known as cowslip. However, cowslip more often refers to Primula veris
, the original plant to go by that name. Both are herbaceous plants with yellow flowers, but Primula veris is much smaller.
Caltha palustris is a plant commonly mentioned in literature, including Shakespeare:
Kingcup Cottage by Racey Helps
is a children's book which features the plant.
In Latvia
Caltha palustris is also known as Gundega which is also used as a girls name which symbolizes fire. The word Gundega is made from 2 words - uguns (fire) and dega (burned). This refers to the burning reaction that some people experience from contact with Caltha sap.
Plant Finder, a British publication which lists over 70,000 plants available in nurseries in the United Kingdom
, lists the following:
Herbaceous plant
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
perennial
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
of the buttercup family
Ranunculaceae
Ranunculaceae are a family of about 1700 species of flowering plants in about 60 genera, distributed worldwide....
, native to marsh
Marsh
In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....
es, fen
Fen
A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...
s, ditches and wet woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
.
It becomes most luxuriant in partial shade, but is rare on peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
. In the UK, it is probably one of the most ancient British native plants, surviving the glaciations and flourishing after the last retreat of the ice, in a landscape inundated with glacial meltwaters.
Height is up to 80 centimetres (31.5 in) tall. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are rounded to kidney-shaped, 3–20 cm (1.2–7.9 in) across, with a bluntly serrated margin and a thick, waxy texture. Stems are hollow.
The flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s are yellow, 2–5 cm (1–2 in) diameter, with 4-9 (mostly 5) petal
Petal
Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They often are brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. Together, all of the petals of a flower are called a corolla. Petals are usually accompanied by another set of special leaves called sepals lying...
-like sepal
Sepal
A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Collectively the sepals form the calyx, which is the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower. Usually green, sepals have the typical function of protecting the petals when the flower is in bud...
s and many yellow stamen
Stamen
The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...
s; they appear in early spring to late summer. The flowers are visited by a great variety of insects for pollen
Pollen
Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...
and for the nectar secreted
Secretion
Secretion is the process of elaborating, releasing, and oozing chemicals, or a secreted chemical substance from a cell or gland. In contrast to excretion, the substance may have a certain function, rather than being a waste product...
from small depressions, one on each side of each carpel.
Carpels form into green sac-like follicle
Follicle (fruit)
In botany, a follicle is a dry unilocular many-seeded fruit formed from one carpel and dehiscing by the ventral suture in order to release seeds, such as in larkspur, magnolia, banksia, peony and milkweed....
s to 1 cm long, each opening to release several seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s.
Caltha palustris is a highly polymorphic
Polymorphism (biology)
Polymorphism in biology occurs when two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species — in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph...
species, showing continuous and independent variation in many features. Forms in the UK may be divided into two subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
: Caltha palustris subsp. palustris, and Caltha palustris subsp. minor.
It is sometimes considered a weed
Weed
A weed in a general sense is a plant that is considered by the user of the term to be a nuisance, and normally applied to unwanted plants in human-controlled settings, especially farm fields and gardens, but also lawns, parks, woods, and other areas. More specifically, the term is often used to...
in clayey garden soils, where every piece of its root will survive and spread. In warm free-draining soils, it simply dies away.
As is the case with many members of the Ranunculaceae, all parts of the plant are poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ous and can be irritant. Skin rashes and dermatitis
Dermatitis
-Etymology:Dermatitis derives from Greek derma "skin" + -itis "inflammation" and genetic disorder.-Terminology:There are several different types of dermatitis. The different kinds usually have in common an allergic reaction to specific allergens. The term may describe eczema, which is also called...
have been reported from excessive handling of the plant.
Other names and etymology
The specific name palustris, Latin for "of the marsh
Marsh
In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....
", indicates its common habitat.
Richard Mabey
Richard Mabey
Richard Mabey is a naturalist and author.He has been called by The Times 'Britain's greatest living nature writer'. Among his acclaimed publications are Food for Free, The Unofficial Countryside and The Common Ground, as well as his study of the nightingale, Whistling in the Dark...
, in Flora Britannica, describes Caltha palustris thus:
"Marsh-marigolds are in decline as agricultural land continues to be drained, but they are still the most three-dimensional of plants, their fleshy leaves and shiny petals impervious to wind and snow, and standing in sharp relief against the tousled brown of frostbitten grasses. Most of the plant's surviving local names - water-blobs, molly-blobs, water-bubbles - reflect this solidity, especially the splendid, rotund 'the publican' from LancashireLancashireLancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
."
Primula veris
Primula veris is a flowering plant in the genus Primula. The species is found throughout most of temperate Europe and Asia, and although absent from more northerly areas including much of northwest Scotland, it reappears in northernmost Sutherland and Orkney.-Names:The common name cowslip derives...
, the original plant to go by that name. Both are herbaceous plants with yellow flowers, but Primula veris is much smaller.
Caltha palustris is a plant commonly mentioned in literature, including Shakespeare:
- Winking Marybuds begin
- To open their golden eyes (CymbelineCymbelineCymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...
, ii. 3).
Kingcup Cottage by Racey Helps
Racey Helps
Angus Clifford Racey Helps was an English children's author and illustrator. His books were written in a simple style and featured woodland creatures and birds, with illustrations by the author...
is a children's book which features the plant.
In Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
Caltha palustris is also known as Gundega which is also used as a girls name which symbolizes fire. The word Gundega is made from 2 words - uguns (fire) and dega (burned). This refers to the burning reaction that some people experience from contact with Caltha sap.
Subspecies, varieties and cultivars
The 2006-2007 edition of the Royal Horticultural SocietyRoyal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...
Plant Finder, a British publication which lists over 70,000 plants available in nurseries in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, lists the following:
- Caltha palustris (awarded the RHS's Award of Garden Merit)
- Caltha palustris var. alba
- Caltha palustris var. barthei
- Caltha palustris var. himalensis
- Caltha palustris var. palustris
- Caltha palustris var. palustris 'Plena' (double flowered)
- Caltha palustris subsp. polypetala
- Caltha palustris var. radicans
- Caltha palustris 'Flore Pleno' (a double-floweredDouble-flowered"Double-flowered" describes varieties of flowers with extra petals, often containing flowers within flowers. The double-flowered trait is often noted alongside the scientific name with the abbreviation fl. pl....
cultivar, awarded the RHS's Award of Garden Merit) - Caltha palustris 'Semiplena' (double flowered)
- Caltha palustris Trotter's form
- Caltha palustris 'Yellow Giant'
- Caltha palustris 'Marilyn'
- Caltha palustris 'Multiplex' (double flowered)