Have you seen a little yellow flower that you think is very cute blooming on your property??? It forms a ground covering mat of glossy green heart shaped leaves punctuated by buttercup like flowers. You might have looked at it and thought it was the first sign of spring!
If your answer is yes, get ready to do battle!! This is a really nasty invasive that hails from Europe and and is taking over North America. It is Ranunculus ficaria, Lesser Celandine, or more commonly- a cute little buttercup.
It was introduced as an ornamental plant in the trade in the late 1800’s and took off at lightning speed. A spring ephemeral, the plant appears very early in the spring, overtaking and displacing other spring ephemerals, and it has a very short growth window. An ephemeral simply means it appears for a short period of time, taking advantage of the available light before the trees leaf out, and then disappears.
Lesser Celandine is in the Buttercup family and is rampantly spreading everywhere and can grow in all kinds of conditions. I see it at many job sites and the first order of business is to spray it repeatedly with a strong herbicide before it takes over the entire property. It is possible but very difficult to dig up, and most of the time, digging just spreads it around because of the finger like tubers underground. You are bound to leave some behind. If you want to spray an organic herbicide, there are several available at the hardware store but is will take repeated applications.
Completing it’s life cycle in the winter and spring, it disappears when hot weather rolls around, but it is just getting ready to come out in ever greater numbers the following spring with multiplying tubers. It is relentless and very aggressive! This invasive is smothering out all the more desirable native plants which are so necessary for the local pollinators. Lesser
celandine emerges well in advance of native species and can establish and overtake areas rapidly – no natural predators to keep it in check, it spreads…. and spreads…. and spreads. And the diversity of the ecosystem suffers.
Sometimes in transplanting a plant from another property, you might import it unwittingly. I did this and as soon as I spotted it at the base of the desirable plant, I dug it up right away. Roundup would have killed the other plant, so I will keep an eye out to make sure I got it all. Persistence is key with this plant!
Spray with a herbicide (roundup) early and as soon as the flowers appear when the weather is at least 50 degrees. As spring advances, spraying is more unsuccessful and you are more likely to over spray other species. If you don’t attack this as soon as it appears on your property, you will have ten times the amount that you had the first time. I normally don’t recommend roundup for control of any species, but this is one case where you will need to take this step. You can dig up small infestations, but roundup will be necessary for larger ones.
For more information, read this great article ‘Lesser Celandine: An Aggressive Non-Native Spring Ephemeral’ and Fact Sheet: Lesser Celandine.