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Coptidium lapponicum

Coptidium lapponicum

Coptidium lapponicum

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How common: Common

Coptidium lapponicum is a small, creeping plant of very wet places such as springs, stream edges and mossy ground. It has few leaves, each kidney-shaped and split into three rounded lobes, and small flowers held on long stalks in summer. All parts are poisonous.

Did you know?

  • Protected in Finland.
  • Its stems run through moss and root at their joints, helping it form loose mats.

About the species

Identification

Low, creeping plant 10–15 cm tall. Stems are thin, running along the ground and rooting at the joints, often hidden in moss. Leaves are few; each has a long stalk and a kidney-shaped blade 2–6 cm wide, split into three rounded lobes with shallow notches. Flowers grow singly on long stalks from near the leaves, about 1–1.5 cm across, with 6–8 small petals. Later it bears small, narrow, hard seeds about 3–4.5 mm long, each with a short curved tip. Flowers in July–August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

heath forest, herb-rich forest, mire, water

Toxicity

A poisonous plant – do not taste it. Source: HUS Poison Information Centre (Finland), tel. 0800 147 111.

Flowering

Jul–Aug

About the habitat

Grows in very wet ground: wet woods, spring areas, along streams and tiny rivulets, seepages, and on soaked mossy tundra. Most common in Lapland; south of Oulu it is rare, reaching east to North Savo.

Sources

Photo: Jgrahn, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ranunculus lapponicus.jpg

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Carex, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37916

See also