Meadow Buttercup

Ranunculus acris

Please keep in mind that it is illegal to uproot a plant without the landowner's consent and care should be taken at all times not to damage wild plants. Wild plants should never be picked for pleasure and some plants are protected by law.
For more information please download the BSBI Code of Conduct PDF document.

Plant Data

Flowering Months:

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Order:

Ranunculales

Family:

Ranunculaceae (Buttercup)

Also in this family:

Bulbous Buttercup, Celery-leaved Buttercup, Columbine, Common Meadow-rue, Common Water Crowfoot, Creeping Buttercup, Globeflower, Greater Spearwort, Green Hellebore, Lesser Celandine, Lesser Meadow-rue, Lesser Spearwort, Love-in-a-Mist, Marsh Marigold, Mountain Clematis, Stinking Hellebore, Thread-leaved Water Crowfoot, Traveller's Joy, Winter Aconite, Wood Anemone

Type:

Flower

Life Cycle:

Perennial

Maximum Size:

1 metre tall

Habitats:

Ditches, farmland, gardens, grassland, meadows, parkland, riversides, roadsides, towns, wasteland, wetland, woodland.

Flower:

Yellow, 5 petals

5 glossy yellow petals on furrowed stalks, up to 2.5cm wide and with spreading sepals.

Fruit:

A cluster of achenes, no larger than half a centimetre across.

Leaves:

The palmate leaves are variable but have 3 to 7 deeply cut lobes. The end lobe is unstalked.

Aroma:

No fragrance.

Other Names:

Blister Plant, Butter Cress, Butter Daisy, Butter Flower, Butterrose, Common Buttercup, Common Crowflower, Common Crowfoot, Crazy Weed, Cuckooflower, Giant Buttercup, Gold Balls, Gold Cup, Gold Knobs, Gold Knots, Horse Gold, Kingcups, Meadow Ranunculus, Showy Buttercup, Tall Buttercup, Tall Crowfoot, Tall Field Buttercup, Upright Crowfoot, Upright Meadow Crowfoot, Water Milfoil, Yellow Gowan.

Frequency (UK):

Abundant

Distribution Map

Reproduced by kind permission of the BSBI.

Click to open an Interactive Map