Chelidonium majus L., Greater Celandine

Account Summary

Growth form and preferred habitats

This conspicuous bright-yellow flowered, short-lived perennial or biennial species has a branching, short, woody rootstock and brittle stems that contain acrid and very poisonous orange latex which burns and stains the skin when handled (Cooper & Johnson 1998). Possession of latex is a feature shared with other members of the family Papaveraceae, but the four-petalled yellow flower, the elongated pod-like fruit capsule and the almost-pinnately lobed leaves all rather strongly resemble members of the closely related Cabbage Family, the Cruciferae (or the Brassicaceae as we must now learn to call it under new taxonomic rules!). Nevertheless, because of other details such as the one-celled capsule, C. majus really is a poppy (Webb et al. 1996).

The widely used English common name 'Greater Celandine' is another source of possible confusion, but in truth the plant is completely distinct from 'Lesser Celandine', Ranunculus ficaria of the already much too large and varied Ranunculaceae! Adoption here of the common name widely used in N America, 'Celandine Poppy', would be an easy way to avoid any confusion (Kang & Primack 1991).

C. majus is typically found in sunny, sheltered, lowland sites, which are kept open by some level of human-related disturbance. It is always found close to habitation and the gardens from where it originates, which suggests that it has only rather limited powers of dispersal. The type of sites inhabited by C. majus includes roadside verges, hedgebanks, waste ground and rubbish tips. It also occurs on the tops of old walls, or in crevices in them and even more frequently in the sparse blown soil and litter accumulated along their base. C. majus is essentially a species of moderate soils with respect to such factors as moisture, fertility, acidic-alkaline reaction (ie pH), but it definitely prefers base-medium to base-rich or calcareous conditions (Sinker et al. 1985).

Distribution and variation

The native distribution of Greater Celandine has been obscured by innumerable escapes from cultivation and it is now found in gardens mostly as a weed. C. majus does not show great variation throughout its total range, but a small number of subdivisions have been made, most notably separate subspecies in Europe (subsp. majus), C and E Asia (subsp. grandiflorum) and in coastal China and Japan (subsp. asiaticum) (Jonsell et al. 2001).

Fermanagh occurrence

Greater Celandine is only an occasional or rare species in Fermanagh, there being reports from a total of 20 tetrads, 14 of them with post-1975 records. As the distribution map indicates, it is rather thinly scattered around the county, but chiefly occurs to the east of Lough Erne. While its populations are usually not very large, they may seed themselves freely and sometimes (perhaps rarely) they become well established and long persistent. For instance, the population at Old Crom Castle appears to have survived for well over a century.

N Ireland occurrence

Considering the position of the plant in the three VCs of the NE of Ireland (Cos Down, Antrim and Londonderry), Hackney et al. (1992) more definitely stated that Greater Celandine, "rarely persisted to become truly naturalised".

Fossil record

The few fossil finds of the species in the current interglacial warm period are confined to sites of human settlement and their dates suggest that it was first present in the British Isles in Roman times. We should therefore regard it as an ancient introduction by man (ie a pre-1500 AD 'archaeophyte') (P.J. Wilson, in: Preston et al. 2002). The fact that it has been in use in herbal medicine (and more recently in homeopathy) for a long time and has been cultivated for this purpose, strongly reinforces this argument. However, the fossil record also indicates that Greater Celandine was present in Britain in the previous Ipswichian interglacial, when it must have arrived by entirely natural means of dispersal without the assistance of man. In turn, this suggests that it might have been able to disperse to Britain, if not to Ireland, under its own power during the current Flandrian interglacial period (in Ireland known as the Littletonian) (Godwin 1975, p. 129; Mitchell 1986).

Flowering reproduction

Flowers are produced all summer from May to August. In addition to being visited and pollinated by bees and flies, both selfing and cleistogamy occur (the latter process involves selfing within the flower bud) (Jonsell et al. 2001). An interesting American study of C. majus flowering behaviour found that most of the variation in the sizes of reproductive characters occurred within individual plants, instead of among plants, or between populations. Flower and fruit sizes as well as seed number per fruit declined significantly during the flowering season, while mean seed size per fruit remained more stable (although even this normally extremely conservative characteristic dropped significantly during the season in one population studied). This suggests that maternal plants may have a strategy for conserving resources by a gradual reduction in the size of some reproductive characters, possibly in order to prolong the period of seed production (Kang & Primack 1991).

This study also showed that (as expected) larger plants not only produced more flowers and fruits than smaller plants, but that these organs were also consistently larger. Thus an important general conclusion was that, in ecological and evolutionary studies, characters such as seed size and number that are commonly taken to reflect plant fitness, should not be viewed in isolation from vegetative characters. Flower and fruit sizes matter, if the goal is to understand the mechanism of natural selection in wild populations (Kang & Primank 1991). Those contemplating a study of flowering performance would do well to read this important paper carefully.

Seed form and dispersal

The elongated capsule contains white-tipped black seeds. The white outgrowth on the seed coat is a nutritive elaiosome oil-body which attracts ants (and possibly also snails and birds), which help disperse the seed to some unmeasured extent (Ridley 1930, p. 522).

Toxicity and medicinal uses

Greater Celandine contains several toxic alkaloids including chelidonine, homochelidonine, chelerythrine, sanguinarine and protopine. Cooper & Johnson (1998) remark that the plant rarely causes poisoning because it is so unpalatable, having an acrid taste, a pungent foetid smell and caustic sap. Despite this, cattle and horses have been known to browse the plant, and it is particularly dangerous, or even lethal, when it is in seed (Cooper & Johnson 1998, p. 169).

NONE OF THE FOLLOWING HERBAL USES SHOULD EVER BE PRACTICED WITHOUT QUALIFIED MEDICAL SUPERVISION. A dilution of C. majus sap was formerly widely used for the treatment of sore or cloudy eyes. External application of the sap was also used to treat warts, corns and ringworm, although being caustic, it is reputed to damage any skin that it touches. However, Cooper & Johnson (1998) reported that repeated external application of the sap failed to cause any skin damage, and they concluded that the reputation of Greater Celandine as a severely toxic plant is dubious. A tincture is used in homeopathy and an herbal ointment is used to treat chronic eczemas. The alkaloid chelidonine affects cell division (like colchicine does) and in Russia it has been investigated for possible use as an anti-cancer drug.

European occurrence

C. majus subsp. majus is widespread in temperate areas of W, C and E Europe, thinning to both N & S, although it does occur on all the islands of the W Mediterranean, and it just reaches 65N (Jalas & Suominen 1991, Map 2028). As is the case in Britain and Ireland, this subspecies is not always considered native on the continent. In Scandinavian countries, it is regarded by most botanists as an archaeophyte.

World occurrence

It is also present in N Africa (status undetermined), while it definitely is an introduction in both N America (where it stretches across the temperate zone) and in New Zealand (Jonsell et al. 2001).

Names

The somewhat unusually prolonged flowering period typical of the species is said to be reflected in the genus name, 'Chelidonium', which is derived from the Greek 'khelidon', meaning 'a swallow' (ie the summer visiting bird), supposedly because the arrival and departure of swallows is thought to coincide with the flowering period of the plant (Johnson & Smith 1946; Gilbert-Carter 1964).

C. majus has quite a number of English common names: Grigson (1987) lists 14, and Britten & Holland (1886) no less than 19. Several names as usual are merely different dialect spellings, for example, 'Celandine' and 'Celidony', plus 'Saladine', 'Seladine' and 'Sollendine' (Britten & Holland 1886). The name is derived similarly to the Latinised genus name, either from the original Greek or

from Old French, 'celidoine', referring again to the swallow. One legend had it that the mother bird used the orange sap of the plant to restore sight to her blinded young (Grigson 1987).

The use of C. majus for cleansing the eyes is certainly older than the explanation or the civilization of the Greeks, since it was equally a part of ancient Chinese medicine (Grigson 1974). The juice of Celandine took away cloudy spots on the eyeball which were called 'kennings' and the plant was introduced to NE America under the name 'Kenning-wort' (Grigson 1987). The Americans also call the plant 'Swallow Wort', a name known to both Gerard and Lyte (Grigson 1987). The name 'Yellow spit' obviously refers to the sap, and names involving 'wart' remind us of another major use of it, for example, 'Wartflower', 'Wart plant', 'Wartweed', 'Wretweed' and 'Kill Wart' (Grigson 1987). Another name in the old herbals is 'Tetter-wort', tetters being some form of skin disease involving a running sore or wound, which the sap was reputed to heal (Prior 1879).

Threats

None.

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