Pass-along Plant, A Case of Mistaken Identity

March 5, 2025
Larry Hurley
Gardening How-To, Perennial Plants
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This photo is from 1985, a year after we moved into our Bethesda home, and a year after I planted a “pass-along” plant, a gift from a coworker. He told me it was Marsh Marigold, and that’s also what I thought it was.

It turned out to be an invasive species, Lesser Celandine, Ranunculus ficaria. From my first plant, it moved over the years to the neighbor’s yard, and then into both of our lawns.

You might see vast swathes of it along the bottomland in Rock Creek Park around this time of year. (These did not come from my yard.)

To try to keep it under controI I dug some of it out, but usually some bits remain and it comes back.

And I have a short attention span so I would eventually get distracted and hop with my weeder to some other lawn weed (ooh…Wild Garlic!).

It’s a tough plant. If you dig it out, made sure to put it in the trash, and not your compost as it’s quite possible that the tubers will survive composting.

Chemical controls are an option, as described by University of Maryland Extension.

In summarizing my 35 years of interacting with Lesser Celandine–when a friend offers you a plant from their yard, my advice is, make sure to find out exactly what it is that you are getting!

Larry Hurley

Larry Hurley worked at Behnke Nurseries from 1984 until the business was composted in 2019, primarily with the perennial department in growing, buying and sales.

Before landing at Behnke’s, he worked as a technician in a tissue culture lab, a houseplant “expert” at a florist shop, and inventory controller at a wholesale nursery in Dallas. With this and that, ten years passed.

When his wife Carolyn accepted a position at Georgetown University, Larry was hired at Behnke’s for the perennial growing department and garden center at Behnke’s Largo location.

In 2021, Larry and Carolyn moved back to Wisconsin to be closer to family and further from traffic. After 37 years in a shaded yard in Maryland, he is happy to have a sunny lot where he can grow all sorts of new perennials, if only he can keep the rabbits at bay. He also enjoys cooking, traveling, and the snowblower.

invasive species