It's one of those little plants that is supposedly very common all over, yet it's a rare sight to see these days as most deciduous forests in Northern Ireland are in serious decline, still when you do come across it, it's a very pleasing little flower to see.
it's often confused with creeping Jenny but that has a buttercup like flower and not flat like the pictures shown here.
It's not edible and it has past out of use as a wound herb to be replaced by more common and more effective plants....though in Counties Clare and Mayo it was called the kidney plant, the flowers were simmered in milk for a short while then drank over 3 or 4 days, the resulting kidney pain then supposedly disappeared.
As for Folklore it's an interesting one, There was once a King who loved white flowers and often went walking in the woods to admire them, once he saw a beautiful little white flower with five petals and emerald coloured pointed leaves, it was the most beautiful flower he had ever seen so he bent down to pick it as a gift for his beloved and as he did so it turned to gold, and ever since that flower has been coloured bright yellow in memory of this first golden flower, oh, and the king's name.. was Midas.
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