Stats

Lifespan: Perennial
Size: Medium
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Temperate forest
Range: Europe and western Asia
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Seeds
Defense: Toxins
Status: Common

About

Greater celandine is a fast-spreading wildflower of the poppy family, found in disturbed ground and woodland edges across Europe, Asia, and introduced North America. Snap any stem and it bleeds a vivid orange-yellow latex — a milky sap used in folk medicine for centuries to treat warts and eye ailments.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Papaveraceae
Genus: Chelidonium
Species: Chelidonium majus