Ficaria verna Hudson
Detail
- Family
- Ranunculaceae
- Botanical Name
- Ficaria verna Hudson
- Common Name
- Lesser Celandine
- Synonym(s)
- Ranunculus ficaria L.
- Flora of Virginia Name/Status
- Ficaria verna Hudson
- Comments
- Recognition of varieties or subspecies is somewhat controversial, but a paper by Post et al. (2009, J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 3: 193-209) found "five entities that can be reasonably referred to subspecies" based on morphometric data. Of these, they ascribe ssp. verna and ssp. calthifolia to Virginia. Most of our material, with leaves crowded at the base and very few on the short stems, seems to represent the latter. But this weedy species exhibits considerable variation within populations and over its developmental period, sometimes obscuring the subspecific boundaries. Therefore, we are treating it only at the species level.
- Habitat
- Floodplain forests, rich upland forests, and disturbed urban forests; a very shade-tolerant, invasive exotic. Locally common in the Potomac River and James River watersheds, and becoming so elsewhere. Based on recent records, this species is spreading rapidly and is often rampantly invasive.
- Native Status
- Introduced
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