Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Chelidonium majus

Chelidonium

celandine, devil's milk, greater celandine, swallow wort

celandine, chélidoine, greater celandine, rock-poppy, swallowwort
Habit Plants to 10 dm. Herbs, biennial or perennial, caulescent, from stout rhizomes or taproots; sap yellow to orange.
Stems

branching, ribbed.

leafy.
Leaves

to 35 cm;

petiole 2-10 cm;

blade deeply 5-9-lobed;

margins irregularly dentate or crenate, rarely laciniate.

petiolate;

basal rosulate, cauline alternate;

blade 1-2x pinnately lobed.
Inflorescences

peduncle 2-10 cm.

axillary or terminal, umbelliform, few flowered;

bracts present.
Flowers

pedicels 5-35 mm;

sepals to 1 cm;

petals bright yellow, obovate to oblong, to 2 cm wide;

style ca. 1 mm.

sepals 2, distinct;

petals 4;

stamens ca. 12-many;

pistil 2-carpellate;

ovary 1-locular;

style ± distinct;

stigma 2-lobed.
Capsules

linear to narrowly oblong, 2-5 cm, glabrous.

erect, 2-valved, dehiscing from base.
Seeds

black, reticulate-pitted.

few to many, arillate.
x

= 6.

Chelidonium majus

Chelidonium
Phenology Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Moist to dry woods, thickets, fields, hedgerows and fences, roadsides, railroads, and waste ground
Elevation 0-1000 m (0-3300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CT; DE; IA; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; BC; NB; NS; ON; PE; QC; Eurasia [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
North America; Eurasia
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The irritating sap of Chelidonium has been used to treat warts. In the vegetative state, this weedy introduction from Eurasia is difficult to distinguish from the native Stylophorum diphyllum.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species 1

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Papaveraceae > Chelidonium Papaveraceae
Subordinate taxa
C. majus
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 505. (1753) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 505. 175: Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 224. (1754)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers