Cicely Mary Barker's Greater Celandine Flower Fairy

You come the Spring,
O swallow!
You come the Spring,
And so do I.

You nest, I know,
Is under the eaves;
White far below
Are my flowers and leaves.

Yet, to and fro
As you dart and fly
You swoop so low
That you brush me by!

I come with the Spring
The wall is my home;
When the swallows come.

Greater Celandine is found growing wild in banks, hedgerows, old walls and vacant land.  The golden yellow flowers are grouped at the end of the stems and bloom from May to August.  The plant has a bright orange milk when the stems or leaves are broken.  As a perennial herb, it is native to Europe, western Asia and North Africa, and naturalized in North America.

It's medicinal history dates back to Roman times.  It was a popular drug plant in the Middle Ages prescribed for jaundice, blood disorders and blindness.  It is poisonous and great care had to be used with the proper dosages.  Used externally, the orange milk from the stems and leaves have been used to cure warts, ringworm and corns.