Lesser Celandine

Ficaria verna – I am very fortunate that where I live I only have to walk five minutes and I am into woodland. So with the bright weather I have been managing to venture out for a few minutes. The sight of all these wonderful sunshine coloured flowers carpeting the woodland floor is such a joy to see and a lift to the heart. It has to be my favourite spring flower. I quite like the way the sun casts the bloom’s shadow to the right. Double-click image for a closer look.

The Heart of Spring

This has to be one of my very favourite spring wild flowers. Believe it or not, I had never set eyes on a Lesser Celandine until I moved here just over 25 years ago where I discovered it growing on the margins of my local wood. Each and every year I see them they always give a spring to my heart, pumping it with pure joy and wonder at how very beautiful and amazing the natural world is around us.

Lesser Celandine Ranunculus ficaria, April 2018, local woodland margin, Staffordshire, England. © Pete Hillman

04/1804/18 by Peter Hillman Categories: Macro Photography, Nature Photography, Photography, Plants, Wild Flowers, Wildlife PhotographyTags: Flower, Flowers, Lesser Celandine, Lesser Celandine Ranunculus ficaria, Macro, Macro Photography, Nature, Nature Photography, Photography, Wild Flowers, Wildlife, Wildlife Photography 22 Comments

Lesser Celandine II

03/17 by Peter Hillman Categories: Macro Photography, Nature Photography, Photography, Plants, Wild Flowers, Wildlife PhotographyTags: Buttercups, Flower, Flowers, Lesser Celandine, Macro, Macro Photography, March, Nature, Nature Photography, Photography, Ranunculus ficaria, Spring, Wild Flowers, Wildlife, Wildlife Photography 12 Comments

Lesser Celandine

Ranunculus ficaria

This just has to be one of my very favourite spring wild flowers. Areas of the my local woods are carpeted in these vivid yellow blooms.

Belonging to the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, each flower head has between eight and twelve golden-yellow petals, which close when it rains, then opens in the sun. The leaves are a glossy dark green and heart-shaped. The flower develops into a small green fruit.

One of the first blooms to appear in spring, it flowers March to May, and is found in dampish habitats, out in the open or in partial shade. They can be seen in hedgerows, woodland margins and open woodland, and near water such as ponds, rivers and streams. They grow insular or may carpet large areas of ground. A common and widespread species.