Lesser Celandine Teachings: starlight, endurance, better days to come 

Botanical Snapshot

Latin Name: Ficaria verna
Common Names: Lesser celandine, pilewort, fig buttercup
Family: Ranunculaceae
Growth Habit: Herbaceous woodland perennial
Habitat: Damp, shady areas such as woodlands, hedgerows, and stream banks
Flowering Season: February to May
Pollinators: Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), honeybee (Apis mellifera), pollen beetles, and various fly species including Bibio, Phora, Diptera, and the larvae of Olindia moth

Ecology notes

Lesser celandine is a perennial, ancient woodland flower, and one of the first to return at winter’s end. The lesser celandine is a true harbinger of spring! 

It grows in basal clumps of glossy, dark green, heart-shaped leaves, with up to ten slender stems, each topped with a single star-like yellow flower. The glossy petals of lesser celandine often show tints of grey or purple on their undersides, making it easier to distinguish from its cousin, the buttercup.

Though much of its ancient woodland habitat has now vanished, this tenacious plant continues to flourish in the modern world, carpeting lawns, parks and wild verges with its solar brilliance! Lesser celandine's vibrant presence towards the end of Imbolc, makes it a symbol of hope and resilience after winter's hardship. 

The lesser celandine is a sight of joy in the wild; but it has garden cultivars, too. With names such as ‘Coppernob’, a variety with orange flowers with black foliage, and the showy double-flowered forms with deep purple leaves, the lesser celandine is a magical addition to garden displays, potted or planted in boxes, as a herald of the returning light of the season. 

Emerging in the low light of late winter, lesser celandine prefers moist, loamy soil. It's the first wild flower to welcome the season’s first bees and pollinators, including Queen bumblebees, freshly awakened from hibernation. By late May, the plant retreats underground for a six-month dormancy, giving way to its kin, the ranunculi buttercup.

Medicine and healing

It's important to distinguish Lesser celandine from the Greater celandine (Chelidonium majus). These plants share the celandine name, but, confusingly, they are unrelated species. The greater celandine belongs to the poppy family, and is found in traditional folk remedies throughout European history.

The lesser celandine, a ranunculi, also contains medicinal compounds, though caution is essential due to high levels of protoanemonin, a toxin present in its fresh leaves, stems and flowers. When the plant is bruised it excretes this toxin which is known to cause skin irritation if comes in contact with the skin. If ingested, the raw plant juice causes sickness of the liver, including jaundice, hepatitis, and can even cause paralysis.

With correct preparation, the lesser celandine can be used medicinally. The plant material needs drying or heating to convert its protoanemonin into anemonin. 

Anemonin is a medicinal compound with anti-inflammatory, anti-oxident and anti-degenerative effects.

You can eat the energy-rich tuber roots, a forgeable root vegetable, which contain nutrients and vitamin C. This is a similar type of historical wild food, like pig nuts, but lesser celandine tubers need cooking before eating. The ranunculin-protoanemonin in the tuber would cause sickness if eaten raw.

Its widely known that hunter-gatherers in the British Isles cooked and ate the tubers of lesser celandine. Ray Mears, the survival expert, has demonstrated how to identify, cook and prepare the tubers to eat in the wild.

Phytochemistry

Ranunculin-Protoanemonin-Anemonin

As a member of the ranunculus family, lesser celandine contains the chemical ranunculin which serves as a defence mechanism (an irritant) to herbivores. Once the plant is bruised or crushed, ranunculin converts and releases protoanemonin which causes burning and blistering. Interestingly, protoanemonin is converted to the medicinally valuable anemonin, when heat dried.

Other compounds

• Glycosides
• Saponins
• Alkaloids
• Flavinoids

Nutrition

• Vitamin C
• Starch
• Potassium
• Calcium
• Phosphorus

Lesser celandine in old herbals

Nicholas Culpepper, the 17th-century herbalist, claimed success using lesser celandine to treat scrofula (a form of tuberculosis). John Parkinson recommended decoctions of the plant for haemorrhoids, swellings and tumours. Although he doesn't detail how he used the decoctions. Lesser celandine is found in the Old English Medical Materials as Raven's Foot (OE hraemnes fot), also as figwort and pilewort, and wenwort (OE clufihte wenwyrt). 

Hildegarde von Bingen's Physica: 

CCVII. Ficaria or Lesser Celandine 

Ficaria is cold and moist. For a person who suffers from burning fevers, cook ficaria and twice as much basil in pure wine, and let it cool. Let him drink some of this wine each day, on an empty stomach, and at night when he goes to bed. He should do this until he is well.

Folk beliefs and practises

The Latin name Ficaria verna comes from ficaria (meaning "little fig") and verna ("of the spring"). The term 'pilewort' refers to its historical use in treating haemorrhoids, whose appearance was likened to the plant’s root tubers. 'Wort' indicates its traditional medicinal application. Other folk names include fig buttercup and figwort.

Modern cautions: Liver damage has been associated with the internal use of lesser celandine in haemorrhoid treatments. Do not ingest any preparation without proper processing and knowledge. Limit use to external applications, such as an oil infusion or ointment, ensuring the plant has been thoroughly dried out beforehand.

Culture and history

The lesser celandine has captivated poets and writers, as a symbol of the returning sun, joy and resilience. Most notably, the celandine was celebrated by William Wordsworth, the Romantic poet, who observed the flower in his poems. 

There is a Flower, the Lesser Celandine,
That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain;
And, the first moment that the sun may shine,
Bright as the sun himself, 'tis out again!

It seems that D.H. Lawrence, the author of Lady Chatterly's Lover, was also enchanted:

“‘I like them,’ he said, ‘when their petals go flat back with the sunshine. They seem to be pressing themselves at the sun.’”

It may not be a major healing herb, but the lesser celandine, as an ancient woodland flower, is deeply woven into the mind, body and imaginations of peoples who have thrived in Britain for thousands of years, since the first settlers, to inspired artists and modern day nature lovers.

The qualia of lesser celandine

How it appears

Glowing like a carpet of stars spread over the ground! Glossy petals of the brightest gorse-yellow, with spring green leaves. The lesser celandine is cheerful, uplifting and brightening. Its warm, sunny strength ushers in the spring and revives a depleted spirit.

Lesser celandine is chlorophyllous and grassy, with the cleansing and bitter aroma characteristic of plants solar in nature.

Leaves and flowers are waxy and bitter. If eaten raw they cause the soft mouth tissue to blister and sore. The starchy tubers are crunchy and sticky like chestnut or potato. No part of the plant should be eaten raw.

Glossy flowers and waxy leaves make this plant hard-wearing, having evolved to withstand the cold rain and wind of the late winter weather. 

Energetic Signature

Fire transforms lesser celandine's toxic qualities, mirroring the alchemy of inner change. A plant of the sun, lesser celandine bridges the void between endings and new beginnings. Its message is of strength, endurance and inner transformation, on the journey from darkness to light, scarcity to abundance.

Magical uses

Lesser celandine should be used to transform a bad situation into a positive one. Its a flower of positivity, inner strength and endurance. 

Dry the flowers and leaves for altar offerings and rituals of abundance, resilience and healing. They hold their colour and can be strung on string to make garlands and in flower mandalas. 

• Add the dried flower to charms and amulets to add strength and resilience, and to ensure positive outcomes.
• Infuse dried flowers and roots in oil for anointing rituals.
• Burn dried flowers in fire magic to transmute fear into fortitude.

Harness lesser celandine it as a symbol of terrestrial starlight, to lead you from a place of darkness to a place of joy and abundance.

Reading references for lesser celandine

Wild Food UK, <https://www.wildfooduk.com/wild-plants/lesser-celandine/>
Wikipedia, Ficaria verna <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficaria_verna>
Gardens Illustrated <https://www.gardensillustrated.com/plants/ranunculus-ficaria-verna-to-grow>
Leechcraft: Early English Charms Plantlore and Healing, Stephen Pollington
Hildegard von Bingen's Physica 
Culpepper's Complete Herbal & English Physician
The Herbalist's Bible, Julie Bruton-Seal & Matthew Seal