Winter-aconite

Eranthis hyemalis, the winter aconite, is a small, tuberous, spring-ephemeral perennial of the Ranunculaceae family native to calcareous deciduous woodlands of southern Europe, especially France, Italy, and the Balkans, and long cultivated and naturalised in northern gardens. From a small, dark, knobbly tuber it pushes up in the very earliest spring a single, short flowering stalk topped by a solitary, bowl-shaped, glossy yellow flower two to three centimetres across, the six petaloid sepals subtended by a frilly ruff of finely divided green bracts that simulate a calyx. Basal leaves, palmately divided into many narrow lobes, expand after flowering and persist only until the canopy closes, after which the plant retreats entirely into its tuber. All parts contain cardiac glycosides and bufadienolides and are seriously toxic if ingested.