Large glossy golden goblets with no petals, only sepals, over big rounded scalloped leaves in standing water
Marsh marigold — Caltha palustris, the kingcup.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Marsh marigold
Flowers March to July
Caltha palustris — Ranunculaceae
The marsh marigold, or kingcup, is the big golden buttercup of wet ground: pond margins, marshes, wet meadows, ditches and wet woodland, flowering from March and often out by May Day. Its glossy cups have no petals at all, only five to nine bright yellow sepals, and its rounded, scalloped leaves are far larger than those of any true buttercup. In North America the same plant is confusingly called cowslip.
How to spot them
- ▸Large, glossy, deep-yellow goblets 2–5 cm across, of five to nine sepals and no petals
- ▸Big, rounded to kidney-shaped, dark glossy leaves with scalloped or bluntly toothed edges
- ▸Hollow, sprawling stems in clumps, in standing water or saturated ground
- ▸Flowers March to July, among the earliest wetland flowers, and often again in autumn
- ▸Fruit a ring of several beaked follicles that split along one side
How to know it
Its genus name comes from the Greek for a goblet, and its epithet means 'of the marsh'
Caltha palustris — the marsh marigold.
Called kingcup, May blobs and water blobs, and gathered for garlands on May morning
Marsh marigold.
In North America this plant is called cowslip, though it is a buttercup relative and no relation of the primula
Marsh marigold — Caltha palustris.
Hung over byre doors on May Day to keep witches from souring the milk
Marsh marigold.
A buttercup relative containing protoanemonin, so poisonous raw and a skin irritant when the sap is fresh
Marsh marigold — family Ranunculaceae.
Its fruit is a ring of beaked follicles, each splitting along one side to shed seeds that float away
Marsh marigold.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Ranunculaceae; Caltha from Greek kalathos, a goblet or basket, and palustris, of the marsh
- •The flower has no petals: the golden 'petals' are five to nine sepals
- •The Wildlife Trusts give a flowering season of March to July in ponds, marshes, wet meadows, ditches and wet woodland
- •Country names include kingcup, May blobs, water blobs, molly-blobs, brave bassinets and publicans-and-sinners
- •Associated with May Day: flowers were strewn on doorsteps and hung in byres to protect cattle and milk
- •Called cowslip in North America, which is a standing source of confusion with Primula veris
- •Poisonous when raw, containing protoanemonin; the sap can blister the skin
- •Seeds have a corky coat and are dispersed by water
Drill it — 8 cards
1 / 8new card
Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Marsh marigold