General:
Perennial herb from a short, thick stem-base with fibrous roots; stems erect or ascending, or with age reclining and rooting at nodes, 10-60 cm tall/long; plants smooth.
Leaves:
Basal leaves circular to egg-, kidney-, or heart-shaped, 2-13 cm long, 2-19 cm wide, margins entire to finely round-toothed, long-stalked; stem leaves 2 or more, smaller, short-stalked or unstalked.
Flowers:
Inflorescence a 1- to 7-flowered cyme terminating the stem or branches, the flowers 1-4.5 cm wide; flower stalks leafy; petals absent; sepals 5 or 6, deep yellow or orange, broadly egg-shaped or elliptic, 10-25 mm long; stamens many.
Fruits:
Follicles, 5 to 15 (25), spreading, unstalked, ellipsoid, 8-15 mm long, 3-4.5 mm wide; beaks straight or curved, 0.5-2 mm long; seeds brown, elliptic, 1.5-2.5 mm long, surface wrinkled.
If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
Illustration Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Caltha palustris var. palustris L.