| Description | One of the earliest blooming wild flowers found growing in wet areas. It is ephemeral and will disappear by mid summer. |
|---|---|
| Plant Type | All Plants, Wild Flowers |
| Sunlight | spring full sun, summer shade |
| Moisture | can tolerate drier soil when dormant, still prefers to be wet to moist during the growing season |
| Soil & Site | Found growing in wet areas in the woods, ditches, near shallow water, bogs, etc. I have seen it growing on mounded tuffs of soil in standing water. |
| Flowers | The 1-1 1/2" bright yellow have 5 or more petal like sepals. Many times the backsides of the petal-like sepals will retain some green early in the blooming period. Have numerous sepals and stamens. Nectar is available around each of the pistils. |
| Leaves | dark green to green, round upper leaves, sessile, notched |
| Stems | rigid and hollow |
| Roots | fibrous |
| Dimensions | 1 foot or greater in height and spread |
| Maintenance | will reseed and form large colonies |
| Propagation | seeds, division |
| Misc Facts | This plant is not a true Marigold it is in the Butter Cup family. Marigold is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "marsh gold". The genus name Caltha is Latin for cup. Referring to the shape of the flowers. The common name "cowslip" comes from the fact that cows slipped on the hammocks of soil these plants grew on. It is a native plant. |
| Author's Notes | As a kid, I picked the flowers of this plant. It grew in a very wet area on large tufts of soil in the shallow water. It was very difficult to walk through this area because of these tufts. |
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