Ficaria verna - Lesser Celandine
This is a common woodland spring flower, though the leaves can remain until later in summer.
There are two sub-species:
Ssp. fertilis develops a full head of ripe achenes and tends to have larger and wider petals (10-20 x 4-9mm).
Ssp. verna develops tubers in the leaf axils after flowering and 0-few ripe achenes in the head.
Both forms over-winter by means of elongated tubers at root level: ignore the tubers developing at ground-level.
There are cultivar forms of both subspecies Ssp chrysocephala and ficariiformis respectively, both have larger flowers (mostly more than 15mm).
Greater Celandine is not in the same family.
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