Yellow heads on scaly stems open in February, long before the plant has any leaves, earning the folk name 'son-before-father'
Colt's-foot - Tussilago farfara.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Colt's-foot
Native · perennial, flowers February to April, before its leaves · clay banks, waste ground, verges
Tussilago farfara — Asteraceae
Colt's-foot is a creeping perennial of bare, damp or disturbed ground whose sun-yellow flower heads open from February, long before the leaves appear. Its old name 'son-before-father' records that odd order. The hoof-shaped leaves follow later, and the plant was long used as a cough remedy.
How to spot them
- ▸Dandelion-like yellow heads on a scaly, purplish, leafless stem in February-April
- ▸Many narrow rays around a prominent disc; the head closes at night and in dull weather
- ▸Large rounded to heart-shaped, toothed leaves, white-felted beneath, appearing after flowering
- ▸Patches on bare clay, landslips, railway cuttings and waste ground
- ▸Look-alikes: dandelion has a hollow, unscaled stem and leaves on the ground all year; lesser celandine is a low green-leaved plant of shady ground; butterbur also flowers before its leaves but has pink-mauve spikes
How to know it
Its rounded, toothed leaves, white-felted beneath, are said to resemble the hoof of a young horse
Colt's-foot.
The genus name is from the Latin for a cough, tussis, because it was long used as a herbal cough remedy
Colt's-foot - Tussilago.
Told from a similar early yellow flower of lawns by scaly, leafless stems, a prominent disc and rays that are narrow and numerous
Colt's-foot (dandelion is the look-alike).
A creeping perennial that colonises bare clay, landslips and railway banks, providing early nectar for bees and hoverflies
Colt's-foot - Wildlife Trusts.
Pink-mauve flower spikes appear before enormous leaves in a similar way on riverbanks, though it is a different plant
Colt's-foot (butterbur, Petasites hybridus, is the look-alike).
Quick-fire facts
- •Tussilago farfara; monotypic genus in the family Asteraceae
- •Wildlife Trusts: flowers February to April; height up to 15 cm; flowers appear before leaves
- •Folk names: son-before-father (Latin filius ante patrem), coughwort, foalfoot
- •Tussilago derives from Latin tussis, 'cough'; the plant was smoked and made into syrups for coughs
- •Contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which can damage the liver; it is no longer recommended for internal use
- •Spreads by creeping rhizomes and by wind-blown seeds with a pappus
- •Flowers are an early food source for bees and other insects
- •Common on clay and disturbed ground
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Colt's-foot