April wildflowers: Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris)

 

Wetlands are one of the most dynamic and fun places to botanize, and marsh marigold colonizes this habitat in full force in mid-April. Growing in clusters that can approach the size of shrubs, its large rounded leaves and multiple bright yellow flowers cover streams, wetlands, ditches and flooded forest floors.

Despite its common name, marsh marigold is but a distant relative to the familiar garden variety marigold, belonging instead and perhaps unsurprisingly to the buttercup family.