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Greater Celandine

Greater Celandine

Chelidonium majus

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How common: Very common

Alien species

Greater Celandine is a perennial with bright yellow, four‑petalled flowers and blue‑green leaves. It often grows around old gardens, walls and waste ground near people across much of Europe and Asia, and it has spread to North America. Break a stem and it oozes thick orange sap. The whole plant is poisonous.

Did you know?

  • Ants carry the seeds, lured by a soft, oily piece attached to each one.
  • Its scientific name refers to an old legend about swallows using the sap on their chicks’ eyes.

About the species

Identification

Tuft‑forming plant 40–60 cm tall. Stems mostly smooth; base and leaf stalks with a few long hairs. Leaves on stalks, divided into several rounded, lobed pieces; yellow‑green above, bluish‑grey beneath; the end piece often has three lobes. Break any part and thick orange sap appears. Flowers grow in small clusters from leaf joints; each about 2 cm wide with four bright yellow petals and a puff of yellow dusting parts in the center. Fruits are long, thin pods 3–5 cm that split from the base. Four petals and orange sap separate it from buttercups and lesser celandine. Flowers in Finland June–August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

yards and roadsides

Toxicity

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

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Prefers shady, nutrient‑rich, disturbed places such as old gardens, ruins, stone walls, yards, waste ground, and edges of woods and bushes. Common in southern Finland; more scattered northwards, but found locally as far as southern Lapland.

Sources

Photo: Bff, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chelidonium majus20100511 10.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki leviäimet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37962

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki versot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37962

Text: Pinkka: Laaja maatalouslajintuntemus 4 op - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37962

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keltamo

See also