But it’s so pretty! Beware: Lesser Celandine
Lesser celandine invading the forest floor
Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) is very pretty, with glossy round leaves and yellow petaled flowers. But don’t be fooled!!! It’s a beautiful plant with an ugly nature (Ohio State University). Lesser celandine has emerging all over Franklin Park and surrounding areas — in lawns, around wet areas, and embankments. It’s an exponential spreader that takes lawns, gardens, and forested areas, smothering ferns, mosses, grasses, other flowering ground cover, native habitat and food sources for birds, pollinators, and fireflies.
Small colonies can be eliminated by digging under the tubers (with a trowel, hori-hori knife, or garden shoved), salvaging the soil clinging to the tubers, and discarding the plants in the landfill — not in yard waste. Yard waste is composted and reused on lawns and gardens. If the tubers or bulbils are not destroyed during the composting process, L. celendine could be further spread throughout the county.
Digging out the plant is a first-level effort, so ensure that the location is carefully inspected on the following year. The tubers can be difficult to eradicate and resorting the herbicides may be the next step (refer to the OSU fact sheet highlighted above). Both approaches will take several seasons as this is a very stubborn weed.
Learn how to identify and remove Lesser celandine
On this iNaturalist map, you can see just some of the locations where Lesser celandine has been spotted in our Franklin Park & Forest community. Be sure not to confuse L. celandine with the native look-alike, Yellow Marsh-marigold.
You can plant cleared areas with Golden ragwort (Packera aurea) or Zig-zag goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis) — two native ground covers with yellow flowers that will spread and possibly outcompete the Lesser celandine over time. Both are deer resistant and loved by birds and pollinators.
Golden ragwort is a lovely, colorful native ground cover that thrives in shade