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Native Wetland Plants

Caltha palustris

Marsh Marigold

flowers about an inch to an inch and a half across. The entire plant is quite shiny and succulent. The hollow stem helps keep the plant afloat. Caltha is important ecologically, providing protection for many small aquatic creatures and assisting in water clarifying by absorbing nutrients and trapping silt.

Despite its common name, the Marsh Marigold is in the Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) and not related to Marigolds.

Marsh Marigold is one of the earliest blooming spring ephemerals in a wetland. Its heart shaped foliage emerges in March and almost over night is topped with bright yellow butter cup like flowers which last thru May. Marsh Marigolds will hold it’s foliage thru mid summer if provided a cool shady niche in a water garden; otherwise it will naturally go summer dormant by the end of June. Found naturally along slow streams and wooded wetlands.

Bloom Color

Yellow

Caltha palustris Characteristics & Attributes

Exposure
Partial Shade
Shade
Mature Height
< 1'
Spread Characteristics
Clumping
Season of Interest (Flowering)
Spring
Season of Interest (Foliage)
Spring
Pond Zonation
Low Marsh 0 - 6"
Foliage Color
Green
Wildlife Benefits
Amphibians
Bees/Pollinators
Wetland Indicator Status
OBL
Plant Type
Bog/Marsh
Flowering Perennial
Marginal
Attributes
Bog
Great Foliage
Mass Planting
Native
Naturalizing
Ornamental Flower
Rain Garden
Specimen
USDA Hardiness Zone
3
4
5
6