Hardy Bog Plants: Caltha palustris

description for "Hardy Bog Plants: Caltha palustris"

A hardy, succulent perennial of marshes and watersides, Caltha palustris has rounded, heart, or kidney-shaped leaves that are dark green, 3"-7" wide, usually with two lobes at base. Its stems are hollow, 8"-24" tall, mostly arising from the base, and its roots are deep and tangled. Its flowers are borne in clusters, cup-shaped, waxy yellow, 1"-2" wide, on long stalks above the foliage in early spring. The flowers of this showy spring plant resemble large buttercups rather than the marigolds (which they are not botanically related to, despite the common name). First to bloom in the spring. All parts of the plant are poisonous. --edited by dtd siegelgirl

History:

The plant was used traditionally to treat many ailments. A root tea was used to induce sweating and as an expectorant. A leaf tea was used as a laxative. The alkaloids contained in the plant can cause irritation to the skin and mucous membranes. Native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere (Europe including Iceland and Arctic Russia, temperate and Arctic Asia, and North America). It grows in wet, boggy places, such as marshes, fens, ditches and wet woods. 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. Caltha, from the Latin "cup" - Greek name for some yellow-flowered plants palustris, from the Latin, paluster, "boggy, marshy" [Sources: http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/aquatics/calthapal.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caltha_palustris]