My lawn was full of yellow color from the dandelions, but some other yellow could be found in the ditches and other wet area as the Marsh Marigolds are in bloom right now. A blossom can produce up to two hundred seeds and when its seed pod open, it forms a splash cup so that when a raindrop hits the wall of the seed cavity, the seeds are expelled. And as the plants are often growing in or near water, the seeds have a spongy tissue which allows them to float on the water so the seeds can wash up on land to grow.

Golden Yellow from the Marsh Marigolds

The name Marsh Marigold gives a clue where you might find this wildflower since they are often found in marshy areas and in wet ditches nestled within the cattails, but they are not related to marigolds of the Aster family but are instead part of the buttercup family. In the UK, Caltha palustris is also known as kingcup, mayflower, May blobs, mollyblobs, pollyblobs, horse blob, water blobs, water bubbles, and gollins. I’m not sure if any of those names are any more fitting since a blob doesn’t sound so pretty and at least the name of marigold refers back to medieval churches as a tribute to the Virgin Mary, as in Mary gold. And they look more golden to me in the ditches and marshes than a horse blob!

Marsh Marigolds in the Ditch

The yellow of the Trout Lily has withered away for the season and the Yellow Marsh-marigold now is providing yellow color in the marshy areas. The flowers of this showy spring plant resemble large buttercups rather than the marigolds and are in the Buttercup family.

Yellow Marsh-marigold

“The wild marsh marigold shines like fire in the swamps and hollows gray…”, Tennyson from the May Queen 1860

Indeed, marsh marigold’s brilliant flowers are hard to overlook after a long winter and are a member of the Ranunculaceae family, named by Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.) for plants that grow where frogs are found. Ranunculus is Latin for “little frog”.

The flowers are showy because of their bright color and relatively large size. The foliage is an attractive bright green, showing color in the wetlands in early spring.

Marsh Marigold