# Lesser celandine: planting and care for a spring carpet

> Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna): a native spring plant 5 to 30 cm tall, yellow from March to May. Where it grows, planting, spread and whether it is poisonous.

Canonical: https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/lesser-celandine
Last updated: 2026-09-28

*Ficaria verna*

![One low patch of lesser celandine in a bare bed in front of a wooden fence in late March, with glossy heart-shaped leaves and many yellow star-shaped flowers](https://tuinontwerp.app/images/blog/speenkruid-3295a79f.webp)

Published: 2026-09-28

Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) is a native, low spring plant 5 to 30
centimetres tall. From March to May it bears glossy yellow star-shaped flowers
above heart-shaped leaves. The plant likes moist, fertile soil in partial
shade. Small tubers let lesser celandine spread fast into a dense carpet.

## Lesser celandine at a glance

| Feature | Lesser celandine |
| --- | --- |
| Height | 5 to 30 cm |
| Spread | 10 to 50 cm per plant |
| Full grown after | 1 to 2 years |
| Sun | Partial shade to shade |
| Soil | Moist and fertile, ideally loam or clay |
| Water | Average: moist in spring |
| Maintenance | Low: no pruning needed |
| Flowers | March to May, yellow |
| For bees | Yes: nectar and pollen, March to May |
| Hay fever | Not or weakly allergenic |
| Leaves | Drop in summer |
| Hardy | Yes |
| Native | Yes |
| Poisonous | Mildly: the sap can irritate the skin |
| Pricks or stings | No |
| Price, young | About €2.35 to €3.50 each, 10 to 30 cm tall |
| Price, grown | Not for sale |

- **Leaf**: February to May
- **Flower**: March to May
- **Fruit**: no noticeable fruit

![A young lesser celandine rosette in February: glossy, undivided heart-shaped leaves on long stalks, with smooth edges, on moist soil among grass](https://tuinontwerp.app/images/blog/speenkruid-leaf-331723b4.webp)
*Leaf*

![Three open lesser celandine flowers in March: flat, glossy yellow stars with eight narrow petals above the plant's own heart-shaped leaves](https://tuinontwerp.app/images/blog/speenkruid-bloom-04d4b2d4.webp)
*Flower*

## How do I recognise lesser celandine?

Start with the leaves. Each leaf sits on a long stalk and is heart-shaped or
round. The edge is smooth or slightly wavy, with no teeth. The leaf is glossy
and feels a little fleshy. Sometimes a dark marking shows on it.

The flowers each sit on a stalk of their own and are 2 to 3 centimetres
across. Each flower has eight to twelve narrow petals, which do not overlap.
Below them sit three, sometimes four green sepals. You will almost never see
fruit. Small round tubers do grow where the leaf stalks join the stem.

Lesser celandine looks like marsh marigold (Caltha palustris), which also has
glossy yellow flowers above heart-shaped leaves. Look at the leaf edge and at
the flower. Marsh marigold has toothed leaves up to 15 centimetres across and
usually five broad petals. On lesser celandine the edge is smooth or wavy, and
the petals are narrow.

## Where does lesser celandine grow best?

Lesser celandine wants partial shade to shade. Partial shade means 3 to 6 hours
of direct sunlight a day around midsummer. A spot under trees that come into
leaf late suits it as well. In March plenty of light still reaches the ground
there, and that is exactly when lesser celandine grows and flowers. The soil
should be moist and fertile. In the wild, the plant grows in deciduous woods,
hedges, road verges and shady lawns.

Lesser celandine does poorly in these spots:

- **On dry, acid sand.** The plant needs soil that stays moist in spring, and
  lesser celandine avoids acid soil.
- **In a fine lawn.** The tubers spread through the grass, and that is how
  large patches form.
- **Among low perennials in a border.** The dense carpet holds back the plants
  next to it.

From early summer into winter, nothing of lesser celandine shows above ground.
All that is left then are the small tubers in the soil.

![A border in front of a wooden fence in two halves: on the left in March a low patch of lesser celandine with yellow star-shaped flowers beside two box balls, on the right in January bare soil with brown leaves and one box ball](https://tuinontwerp.app/images/blog/speenkruid-1-3c364e7d.webp)
*The same border in March and in January. This is a generated image, not a photograph.*

In the app you work on a scale drawing of your own plot, with your house and
the houses next door on it. There you pick the corner that lesser celandine
gets.

## Planting and caring for lesser celandine

Nurseries sell lesser celandine as a young plant in a small pot. Plant it in
spring, while the leaves are up. After flowering you can no longer see where it
grows.

Space the plants about 26 centimetres apart. That comes to 11 to 15 per square
metre. On planting day the bed looks bare, but the tubers fill the gaps by
themselves. Keep the soil moist in the first spring, above all in a dry month.

No pruning is needed.

## What goes wrong with lesser celandine?

**Lesser celandine is taking over the lawn or the border.** Tubers break
off easily when you weed, and every loose tuber becomes a new plant. Pull off
the leaves as soon as they appear, because that weakens the plant. Weed before
flowering, and do not dig the soil over. You can also cover a bed for a few
seasons with cardboard and 10 centimetres of mulch. In a border, a dense
evergreen ground cover such as [lesser periwinkle](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/lesser-periwinkle)
helps. Many weedkillers work poorly on lesser celandine.

**The flowers stay closed.** In grey or rainy weather they do not open. Even on
a sunny day the flowers open only around nine in the morning. By five in the
afternoon they have closed again. Nothing needs doing.

**The leaves turn yellow and disappear.** That is normal. After flowering, the
part above ground dies back in early summer.

**A white coating covers the leaves.** That is powdery mildew, a fungus. It
turns up mostly on drier soil.

## Which insects and birds use lesser celandine?

The white-marked (Cerastis leucographa), a moth, uses lesser celandine as a
host plant. Its caterpillar feeds on lesser celandine and on other plants from
April to June. The moth itself flies from mid-March to the end of April. In the
Netherlands the white-marked is rare and critically endangered. Now and then it
turns up in the south and east of the country.

No fixed link between lesser celandine and a particular bird has been
described.

## Is lesser celandine poisonous or edible?

Lesser celandine is mildly poisonous. The whole plant contains weak toxins,
which are harmful if eaten. Their level in the plant rises in the course of
spring. The sap can irritate the skin. If you weed a lot of lesser celandine,
wear gloves.

The photos on this page were made with AI, based on real photos and descriptions of this plant.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is lesser celandine poisonous?

Yes, mildly. The whole plant contains weak toxins that are harmful if eaten, and the sap can irritate the skin. The level of those toxins rises in the course of spring.

### How do I get rid of lesser celandine?

Pull off the leaves as soon as they appear, and weed before flowering without turning the soil over. Loose tubers otherwise grow into new plants. You can also cover a bed for a few seasons with cardboard and 10 cm of mulch.

### Where does lesser celandine grow best?

In partial shade to shade, on moist and fertile soil. Under trees that come into leaf late, plenty of light still reaches the ground in March.

### When does lesser celandine flower?

From March to May. The flowers only open in bright weather. In grey weather, early in the morning and late in the afternoon, they stay closed.

### Is lesser celandine native to the Netherlands?

Yes. Lesser celandine is originally native to the Netherlands. In the wild it grows in deciduous woods, hedges, road verges and shady lawns.

## Sources

- [Duistermaat, Sparrius & Denters, Standaardlijst van de Nederlandse flora 2020 (Gorteria 43)](https://natuurtijdschriften.nl/pub/1019223)
- [NDFF Verspreidingsatlas — Ficaria verna](https://www.verspreidingsatlas.nl/1047)
- [Flora van Nederland — Gewoon speenkruid](https://www.floravannederland.nl/planten/gewoon_speenkruid)
- [Flora van Nederland — Speenkruid (gastblog)](https://www.floravannederland.nl/home/gast_bloggers/gast_bloggers_post/?permalink=speenkruid---ficaria-verna)
- [Wilde planten in Nederland en België — Gewoon speenkruid](https://www.wilde-planten.nl/gewoonspeenkruid.htm)
- [NDFF Verspreidingsatlas — Caltha palustris (dotterbloem)](https://www.verspreidingsatlas.nl/0187)
- [RHS — Ficaria verna (lesser celandine)](https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/337208/ficaria-verna/details)
- [RHS — Lesser celandine (weeds)](https://www.rhs.org.uk/weeds/celandine)
- [RHS — Shade gardening (definities zon en schaduw)](https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=934)
- [PFAF — Ficaria verna](https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Ficaria+verna)
- [Imkerpedia — Drachtplanten](https://www.imkerpedia.nl/wiki/index.php/Drachtplanten)
- [Pollennieuws / Flora van Nederland — Aandachtspunten hooikoorts vriendelijke tuin](https://www.pollennieuws.nl/post/?permalink=aandachtspunten-hooikoorts-vriendelijke-tuin)
- [De Vlinderstichting — Witringuil](https://vlinderstichting.nl/vlinder/witringuil/)
- [De Cruydt-Hoeck — Gewoon speenkruid](https://www.cruydthoeck.nl/gewoon-speenkruid-ficaria-verna)
- [Tuincentrum Soontiëns — Ficaria verna (prijs)](https://tuincentrumsoontiens.nl/webshop/tuinplanten/inheemse-planten/inheemse-planten-stadsnatuur-producten/ficaria-verna/)
- [Ecoflora — Speenkruid (prijs)](https://www.ecoflora.be/nl/speenkruid-ranunculus-ficaria-inheemse-vaste-plant-ecoflora-2340)
- [Yarinde — Speenkruid (plantafstand)](https://yarinde.nl/products/ranunculus-ficaria)
- [GroenRijk Plantengids — Speenkruid (plantafstand)](https://www.groenrijk.nl/plantengids/plant/vaste+plant/ranunculus-ficaria)
- [Wikimedia Commons — Leaf: photo by Chris Armstrong (CC0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ficaria_verna_112574865.jpg)
- [Wikimedia Commons — Flower: photo by AnRo0002 (CC0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20170323Ficaria_verna1.jpg)

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