Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna)

Hey dear Hive friends, first of all I wish you a good day and hope you enjoyed it too! In this post, I would like to introduce you to a plant that I recently photographed and hope you find my post interesting.

This plant goes by the common name lesser celandine and scientifically Ficaria verna. It is a plant that is mainly found in Central and Northern Europe and the flowering period begins around March. The flowers have a golden appearance and a typical appearance reminiscent of a crown, when the flowering period begins, I might share a few pictures of it again.

Most of the time, this plant can be found on the edges of paths, but also on rivers or on meadows you can find Ficaria verna. It is rather a smaller plant that can grow about 5-25 cm tall and needs a sunny or semi-shaded place.

Ficaria verna is also an old medicinal plant but is nowadays rather less used as medicine. The positive properties include the high content of natural vitamin c and was already used by sailors against the disease scurvy. The active ingredients of the plant have not yet been fully researched, but one active ingredient is protoanemonin, which makes the plant poisonous! So attention only in the right application it can be medically effective and you should always ask your doctor before you play with the idea of using something, no matter what medicine!

I also find it interesting that the toxic active ingredient protoanemonin is converted into the non-toxic ingredient anemonin by the drying process or by heating, which can be interesting from a pharmaceutical point of view because the active ingredient anemonin has some positive properties.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like my new Post, i’m also happy when people can learn something new about nature! I took the pictures with my camera Sony Alpha 6000 and 55-210 mm lens!