A great moment arrived this fine Autumn morning. While walking in the woods in the back, I found this sweet little bit of green growing from under a Rhododendron. Determined to ID the little thing, I plucked a small leaf. Right away I noticed the bright yellow/orange juice coming from the stem where I cut it. The juice had a bit of a smell to it, although the leaf itself had no scent. “AHHHH,” I thought. Something more to go on than “green leaf, multi lobed, pinnate, winged at stalk, etc,” since there was no flower at this time and I didn’t even know if it HAD a flower or was just a green leafy thing.
All in all, it was that liquid that guided me to an answer. I began looking for “dye plants” but after getting nowhere, searched “yellow juice plants” and it was the third one I looked at.
According to “Class-Book Of Botany USA&Canada”, by Alphonso Wood:
CHELIDONIUM, L. Celandine. (Gr. Xελíδωv, the swallow; being supposed to flower with the arrival of that bird, and to perish with its departure.) Sepals 2, suborbicular; petals 4, suborbicular, contracted at base; stamens 24 – 32, shorter than the petals; stigma 1, small, sessile, bifid; capsule silique-form, linear, 2-valved, 1-celled; seeds crested.-Jupitarian. Fragile, pale green, with saffron yellow juice.
C. majus L. Lvs. pinnate; lfts. lobed, segments rounded; fls. in umbels. – By roadsides, fences, etc., arising 1 – 2f high. Lvs. smooth, glaucous, spreading, consisting of 2-4 pairs of leaflets with an odd one. Lfts. 1 1/2 -2 1/2′ long, § as broad, irregularly dentate and lobed, the partial stalks winged at base. Umbels thin, axillary, pedunculate. Petals elliptical, entire, yellow, and very fugacious, like every other part of the flower. The abundant bright yellow juice is used to cure itch and destroy warts. May – Oct. § Eur.
