Green hellebore

Helleborus viridis is a herbaceous perennial of the buttercup family growing 20-40 cm tall from a thick, blackish rhizome with many fibrous roots. Unlike its evergreen relatives, the species is deciduous; the long-stalked basal leaves emerge in early spring and are pedately divided into 7-13 narrowly elliptic, sharply serrate leaflets, dark green and glabrous. Flowering stems are leafy above and bear one to four nodding to spreading cup-shaped flowers 3-5 cm across. The petaloid sepals are five, broadly elliptic, and a distinctive yellow-green colour; the true petals are reduced to small tubular green nectaries. Numerous yellow stamens surround three to six erect carpels which mature into beaked, dehiscent follicles. The plant occurs in deciduous woodlands on calcareous soils across western and central Europe, flowering in late winter and early spring.