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Caltha palustris
Also called Cowflock, Kingcup, Yellow marsh marigold, Cowslip, Giant Kingcup, Common Marsh Marigold, Meadow Bright
Marsh-marigold is a hardy, hairless perennial with bright yellow flowers that grows in marshes, fens and wet ground across the Northern Hemisphere. It needs constantly wet or boggy soil and dies back in autumn, returning from buds at the soil surface.
Caltha palustris, known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium sized perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional flowers may occur at other times.
Caltha contains several active substances of which the most important from a toxicological point of view is protoanemonin. Consumption of larger quantities of the plant may cause convulsions, burning of the throat, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, dizziness and fainting. Contact of the skin or mucous membranes with the juices can cause blistering or inflammation, and gastric illness if ingested. Younger parts seem to contain less toxics and heating breaks these substances down. Small amounts of Caltha in hay do not cause problems when fed to husbandry, but larger quantities lead to gastric illness.
Additionally, plants that live in raw water may carry toxic organisms which can be neutralized by cooking.
The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It can be found in much of the northeastern United States.
Early spring greens and buds of Caltha palustris are edible when cooked (but are poisonous when raw). Young leaves or buds should be submerged a few times in fresh boiling water until barely tender, cut into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted, and served with melted butter and vinegar. Very young flowerbuds have been prepared like capers and used as a spice.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Caltha palustris by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
