As is the case with many members of the family Ranunculaceae, all parts of the plant are poisonous and skin rashes and dermatitis have been reported from excessive handling of the plant.
Caltha palustris (kingcup, marsh marigold)[1] is a perennial
herbaceous plant of the family Ranunculaceae, native to marshes, fens, ditches
and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
It becomes most luxuriant in partial shade, but is rare on
peat. In the United Kingdom, it is probably one of the most ancient native
plants, surviving the glaciations and flourishing after the last retreat of the
ice, in a landscape inundated with glacial meltwaters.
Height is up to 31 inches tall. The leaves are rounded to
kidney-shaped1.2–7.9 inches across, with a bluntly serrated margin and a thick,
waxy texture. Stems are hollow.
The flowers are yellow, (1–2 inchesi n diameter, with 4-9
(mostly 5) petal-like sepals and many yellow stamens; they appear in early
spring to late summer. The flowers are visited by a great variety of insects
for pollen and for the nectar secreted from small depressions, one on each side
of each carpel.
Carpels form into green sac-like follicles to 1 cm long,
each opening to release several seeds.
It is sometimes considered a weed in clay-like garden soils,
where every piece of its root will survive and spread. In warm free-draining
soils, it simply dies away. Marsh-marigolds are in decline as agricultural land
continues to be drained, but they are still the most three-dimensional of
plants, their fleshy leaves and shiny petals impervious to wind and snow, and
standing in sharp relief against the tousled brown of frostbitten grasses. Most
of the plant's surviving local names - water-blobs, molly-blobs, water-bubbles
- reflect this solidity
1.
Some people will eat the leaves when cooked;
boil 10-60 minutes, until tender.
2.
Roots can be cooked and eaten
3.
The variety found in Western Canada is the Yellow
marsh marigold (caltha palustris)
©Al (Alex-Alexander) D. Girvan. All rights reserved
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