Kingcups...

9 May 2011

 Macro Monday...  We have had a few very dry weeks of sunny weather... so this year it has been possible to walk in the early evening through the Kingcups... 

Usually this area of ground is very wet and marshy but this year it has dried to a soggy mud...

I don't know of any other  area on Cavehill where the Kingcups grow except here and I like to come to look at them at the end of April when they are in full bloom...

The Kingcup is a perennial herb with a short underground rhizome which gives rise to erect hollow stems up to 18" (45cm) high...

These beautiful blossoms are also known as Marsh Marigolds, Mary-buds (Shakespeare), Marygold (John Gay 18th century poet), and Soldier's Buttons...

They are usually found in ditches, wet meadows and shady places...  I found that the photographs I took of the Kingcups in the shade of a hawthorne tree came out much better than those photographed in the bright sunshine...  I used my Nikon 55-200 mm lens...

The dark green leaves have heart shaped blades on long stalks...

It is a member of the buttercup family and the blossoms look very similar although these are much larger.

In folklore they were hung upside down in doorways in May to ward off witches and were also used as a protection against lightning...

The blossoms are 1"-2" across...

They flower from March to July but I always find they are at their most spectacular towards the end of April when they are in full bloom and haven't started to die back...