Buttercup Family [Ranunculaceae] |
status
flower
inner
morph
petals
sepalsstem
toxicity
rarity
sex
7th March 2015, Roche Abbey, South Yorks. | Photo: © John Phandaal Law |
A short perennial flower which grows to 40cm high. |
7th March 2015, Roche Abbey, South Yorks. | Photo: © John Phandaal Law |
Hiding amongst its leaves there are 3 as-yet unopened green flowerheads lurking amongst or hiding under the foliage. The leaflets are comparatively wide (for a Hellebore) and have coarsely-toothed edges but are not as wide as those on Corsican Hellebore nor on the even wider leaflets of Christmas-Rose. |
7th March 2015, Roche Abbey, South Yorks. | Photo: © John Phandaal Law |
The leaves are a bright-yellowish-green and deeply cleft into 3 leaflets, (left hand corner), often in pairs or in triplets. Some leaves are in rosettes with 6 to 8 leaves, which are cut into 2 or 3 leaflets. A younger set of leaves, with a brownish tinge, are centre right. Unlike the evergreen leaves of Stinking Hellebore, these have deciduous leaves dying off later. |
7th March 2015, Roche Abbey, South Yorks. | Photo: © John Phandaal Law |
The flowers of Hellebores have 5 petals (actually sepals) which are a bright-green colour, hence both the common name and the specific epithet 'viridis'. The flowers of this species of Hellebore are are in either singles or in small clusters |
7th March 2015, Roche Abbey, South Yorks. | Photo: © John Phandaal Law |
The flowers are between 3 and 5cm across, and with numerous filaments within with greenish-cream stamens atop. The female parts (carpels) number 2 to 5 - but none are visible here because they are not yet mature enough but when they do appear the end is abruptly terminated apart from a thin wire-like projection on the outside of each carpel which is about the same length as the carpel (and similar to those of Corsican Hellebore and Christmas-Rose but differing from the tapering ones of Stinking Hellebore) |
No relation to : the Easily mis-identified as : Stinking Hellebore (Helleborus foetidus) which also has green flowers (but they are a duller-green) and usually bell-shaped [hardly opening] and with the head hanging downwards. Uniquely identifiable characteristics Distinguishing Feature : It is native as far north as Northern England but often occurs as a garden escapee. It is a fairly rare [R].
It seems that it might (?) be Green Hellebore which contains some of the cardiotoxic compounds that were previously thought to be present in Black Hellebore (aka Christmas-Rose) - these compounds being Helleborin, Hellebrin and
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Helleborus | viridis | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Ranunculaceae |
Helleborus (Hellebores) |
Buttercup Family [Ranunculaceae] |