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One mention of Ranunculus ficaria (Lesser Celendine) can send the 'bowling green' lawn lovers running for the glyphosate. With good reason, I should add, it's incredibly tenacious of life and loves nothing more than a manicured lawn to populate, nay dominate. Dig it out and you end up just distributing them everywhere.
Apart from this invasive tendancy, it was actually a useful plant for many centuries and well known to our European ancestors for whom the lawn was a luxury they couldn't afford. It's incredibly common here in GB and whole hedge banks are full of the starry yellow flowers in Spring. What most drivers don't realise is how variable this particular plant is.
In the wild it produces a myriad of leaf colors, from the darkest purple to the palest pewter, the flowers are single, double, semi-double, yellows, oranges, whites with the backs of the petals ranging from indigo to pale slate. They even produce the double green petaloid flowers that evoke many different reactions in all flower growers. Many of the named Lesser Celendines come from these wild forms, not hand bred, their parents were probably neighbours, not formally introduced by a paintbrush.
These little chaps, with sunny flowers that have a habit of going to bed by 2pm or not getting up if it's a rainy day are not grown enough in my view. They put up with my clay soil, the sopping wet winters, the hard baked summers and the unruly grass.
This one is Coppernob, it was raining this afternoon so we have a good view of the underside of the petals.
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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