Eranthis hyemalis (L.) Salisb. is a native of southern Europe, a popular garden plant which has become naturalized in Britain. It is one of the very first flowers to bloom in the New Year, and as such gladdens the heart. I noticed this colony today as I was passing through Brinton on my bicycle. Cycling is a good way to get about if you are interested in such things.
The Winter Aconite belongs to the buttercup family, the Ranunculaceae, and is notable for its hardihood and early appearance, flowering between January and March: a trait shared with the closely related hellebores; and indeed a former name for the winter aconite is Helleborus hyemalis L.
“Eranthis” derives from the Greek ἔαρ, “spring” and ἄνθος, “flower”. “Hyemalis” is Latin and means “winter-flowering”.
The plants grow from tuberous rhizomes and form little colonies. At a glance, they can be mistaken for another member of the family, the Lesser Celandine Ranunculus ficaria L., though the celandine flowers later.
Eranthis is not one of the true aconites, which belong to the same family but are placed in another genus. Monkshood Aconitum anglicum Stapf. was for centuries used as a poison: the plant produces a lethal cocktail of alkaloids, notably aconitia. Eranthis hyemalis produces a poisonous alkaloid too, and its English name probably derives from this.
The whole plant is resistant to frost damage, much like the Snowdrop Galanthus nivalis L.; the flowers are sensitive to temperature, opening fully in warmth and closing quite tightly in the cold and wet. These photographs were taken at 7°C on a windy afternoon of intermittent sun, so the flowers are only partly open. The colony is on a roadside bank next to the wall of a garden, whence the plant probably escaped some years ago.
