Today is Celandine Day. 10 things you might not know about lesser celandine (Ficaria verna):
It belongs to the Buttercup family, and is not related to greater celandine, a member of the poppy family.
It has fleshy dark Green, heart-shaped leaves and distinctive flowers with bright Yellow, glossy petals.
It flowers from late February to May in the UK and is regarded by many as a harbinger of spring. CS Lewis no doubt did, as he mentioned the plant in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: when Aslan returns and Narnia’s perpetual winter ends, the children notice that the ground is covered in all directions with little yellow celandine flowers. It is also a favourite flower of the protagonist Paul Morel in Sons and Lovers, by DH Lawrence.
The plant is poisonous if ingested raw and potentially fatal to grazing animals. However, cooking eliminates the toxicity and it can be eaten as a vegetable or used as medicine. Nicholas Culpepper is said to have treated his daughter for 'scrofula' (or Kings evil) with this plant, and it is a traditional cure for piles, because the knobby tubers of the plant resemble them. Another word for the plant is pilewort. It’s also rich in Vitamin C and therefore good for preventing scurvy.
It was once thought that you could use lesser celandine to predict the weather as they close their petals before raindrops.
Lesser celandine grows on land that is seasonally wet or flooded, especially in sandy soils, but is not found in permanently waterlogged sites.
Lesser celandine is pollinated by bees, small beetles and flies, and caterpillars eat the leaves.
William Wordsworth loved them and wrote three poems about them: To the Small Celandine, To the Same Flower, and The Small Celandine. When he died it was proposed that a celandine be carved on his memorial plaque inside St Oswald's Church, Grasmere, but the flower carved thereon is actually a greater celandine.
Edward Thomas wrote a poem entitled Celandine. Encountering the flowers in a field, the poet is reminded of a past love, who is now dead. He also remarked on banks of celandines in his early prose work In Pursuit of Spring.
In America, lesser celandine is considered an invasive weed and is banned in some states. In the UK it is generally considered a weed, but some horticulturists have recommended them as a good thing to plant at the base of a hedge next to a lawn.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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