Marsh Marigolds, the Big Bright Yellow Buttercup of the Springtime Swamp
On a sunny, but very windy, Thursday in late April my five year-old nephew, Kellen was spending the day with me. Kellen asked me if New York State was "the biggest state".
"It's one of the biggest states," I replied; and added, "but even though New York State isn't the biggest state in the country we are lucky to have so many great places in our state: like Niagara Falls, New York City, The Adirondack Mountains…"
"…and the Spring Woods!" he piped in.
Kellen is right. We are lucky to have a beautiful decidusus forest that has grown next to our family's land for so long that my great-grandmother (his great-greatgrandmother) played among its' towering maples and fern filled bogs when she was Kellen's age.
So there, a week after Earth Day, I thought it would be a perfect time to introduce Kellen to the some of the rich biodiversity that grows all around us-it would also be a great opportunity for me to learn more about mid-spring wild flowers I have always admired, and felt such famialiarity for even though I knew little about them and often didn't even knowing their proper name. Kellen and I started down the road with a camera, a notebook and our copy of Peterson's Field Guide to Wildflowers of Northeastern and North-Central America.

Kellen points out a healthy cluster of "Marsh-Marigolds", also known as "Cowslips" in bloom alongside a small stream in late April.

We only had to walk to the corner to come bunches of bright yellow flowers that bloom mid-spring along one of the tiny streams that crosses underneath our street. Kellen said that he had seen these riding his bus home from Pre-Kindergarten and asked what they were. Because of their bright yellow coloration and their butter-cup shape I shouldn't have been surprised to learn that they were indeed called "Marsh-Marigolds" or "Cowslips" (Latin name Caltha palustris) and that they were part of the Buttercup or Ranunculaceae family of plants. Peterson's Field Guide aptly describes them looking like "huge buttercups…with 1 to ½ inch flowers that grace swamps and brook sides from April to June".
Our reference book also said that their "thich succulent stems" could be eaten if they were gathered early in the season. Kellen and I were satisfied to take our pictures which we are sharing with you on this page. Something we do like to eat are strawberries, though I doubt Kellen has ever tasted the little wild strawberries that I used to pick as a child for my mother to bake into wild strawberry muffins.
On our next stop we will see if we can find a wild strawberry patch and begin an observing the tiny treat from flower to fruit.