Langbar Loop #6: Toxic Beauty
Note: the published coordinates are not for the cache location
The 6th cache in the series, a camo-taped flip-top plastic pot, is hidden at the side of Langbar Lane - the continuation of Narrow Lane beyond its upper (northern) end.
See Langbar Loop #1 for background info on the series including a map.
To find the cache, clicking on the above image will take you to a jigsaw puzzle, completion of which will reveal the coordinates and a helpful hint.
Please note that the cache description contains an external link above to a jigsaw.
Although it is from a well-known source, it has 'not been checked by Groundspeak nor by the reviewer for possible malicious content and access to the site is therefore at your own risk'.
This common, lovely - but potentially dangerous - bright yellow beauty was seen at various places alongside the trail.
The lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) aka pilewort is a low-growing, hairless perennial in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae native to Europe and Western Asia.
It is poisonous if ingested raw and potentially fatal to grazing animals and livestock such as horses, cattle, and sheep.
It prefers bare, damp ground and is regarded by many as a persistent garden weed. Despite this some nursery owners and discerning gardeners in the UK and Europe collect selected cultivars of the plant.
It emerges in late winter with flowers appearing late February through to May, its appearance across the
landscape is regarded by many as one of the harbingers of spring.
It prefers growing in areas which are seasonally wet or flooded, especially in sandy soils, but is not found in permanently waterlogged sites. By emerging before woodland canopy leafs out, it can take advantage of the higher levels of sunlight reaching the woodland floor.
If disturbed, separation of the plant's numerous basal tubers is an efficient means of vegetative propagation and the plants are easily spread if these are unearthed and scattered by digging activities of some animals and humans. Erosion and flood events are particularly effective means of spread, as the plants are very successful at colonizing low-lying floodplains once deposited.
Toxicity: all Ranunculaceae contain a poison called protoanemonin. Contact with damaged or crushed leaves can cause itching, rashes or blistering on the skin or mucosa. Ingesting the raw plant can cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness, spasms, or paralysis
Drying or cooking eliminates the toxicity and the plant has been incorporated in diets or herbal medicine after being dried, and ground for flour, or boiled and consumed as a vegetable.
Historical herbal use: it is known as pilewort it has been used to treat piles (hemorrhoids). It is still recommended for this purpose in some herbal guides by applying an ointment of raw leaves. Its knobby tubers resemble piles, and the doctrine of signatures (old beliefs now regarded as potentially dangerous pseudoscience) suggests it could be used to cure them!
Mesolithic Hunter gatherers in Europe ate its roots, boiled, fried or roasted as a source of carbohydrates - which apparently have a similar taste and texture as potatoes.
In literature: William Wordsworth was very fond of the flower and it inspired him to write three poems. On his death it was proposed that a celandine be carved on his memorial plaque inside St Oswald's Church, Grasmere - unfortunately the greater celandine Chelidonium majus was used by mistake!
C S Lewis mentions celandines in a key passage of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Aslan comes
to Narnia and the whole wood passes 'in a few hours or so from January to May'. The children notice 'wonderful things happening. Coming suddenly round a corner into a glade of silver birch trees Edmund saw the ground covered in all directions with little yellow flowers - celandines'.
DH Lawrence mentions celandines frequently in Sons and Lovers - they seem to be a favorite of the protagonist, Paul Morel:
' . . . going down the hedge-side with the girl, he noticed the celandines, scalloped splashes of gold, on the side of the ditch. 'I like them,' he said, 'when their petals go flat back with the sunshine. They seem to be pressing themselves at the sun.' And then the celandines ever after drew her with a little spell'.
