Trollius

The moisture loving globe flowers are such reliable and useful early flowering members of the buttercup family. All have a solitary, rounded flowers above leafy clumps of attractively cut foliage. Try them with early flowering Iris sibirica selections or contrast in front of the large purple tinted Ligularia 'Desdemona'. For moist soils in full sun or part shade.

Although the flowers of Trollius are visited by a number of insects, attracted by the abundant pollen and nectar, it seems that most globe flowers have a very specific pollination requirement, a fly in one genus of root-maggot flies. And bizzarely, although the plants require the flies for pollination, the seeds are often parasitized by the larvae of the self-same fly!