If you are looking forward to seeing spring wildflowers, you are not alone! Our Team for Healthy Parks is currently working in natural areas to ensure that ephemerals like Dutchman’s breeches and Virginia Bluebells have a chance to thrive.
You may be surprised to learn that their efforts include removing a very striking plant – fig buttercup, also known as lesser celandine. If you’ve been to Cherokee Park, you’ve seen this yellow flower blooming as a dense carpet along Beargrass Creek. Native to Europe and Western Asia, its introduction in the United States has caused widespread ecological issues.
In Cherokee Park, fig buttercup emerges before native wildflowers and easily takes over before those flowers have a chance to grow. The fig buttercup also contributes to streambank erosion, crowding out native plants and leaving the ground barren and susceptible to erosion during its six-month dormancy phase.
Fig buttercup is established along Cherokee Park’s waterways, and our Team for Healthy Parks can’t compete with flood events that continue to spread the tubers. Therefore, in late winter we focus our efforts on areas that are still vulnerable, treating fig buttercup while surrounding vegetation is still overwintering. We try to mitigate fig buttercup in Cherokee, Seneca, Iroquois and other parks starting in February.
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