California Buttercup (Ranunculus californicus) Login         


        Description
  • Height 6 in. - 2 ft.
  • EW Bloom Feb - Apr
  • This bright yellow flower is 1" across, with 7 to 22 shiny petals.
  • Buttercups flower in early spring, and die back (including the leaves) in the summer.
  • Found on coastal bluffs, grassland, woodland and moist meadows.
  • CA native
  • AKA Common Buttercup
  • Buttercup Family (Ranunculaceae)



The buttercup looks like butter, with 7 to 22 elliptic, overlapping, shiny yellow petals.



Each buttercup flower gets its own stalk. The center is a half sphere of packed green pistils, surrounded by dozens of yellow stamens.



Long-stalked basal leaves have 3 deeply- lobed leaflets. Leaves on the flower stems have narrow divisions.

   Photo Gallery (88 ) click any picture to enlarge
    

Ranunculus is an ancient flower group - it has been successful for 2,500,000 years. Ranunculus flowers have many petals but are not compound flowers l ...

Leaves are on long stalks. Leaves higher up the stem are often smaller. Each flower gets its own long stalk.

Each buttercup leaf is organized in 3 segments that don't quite separate into 3 leaflets. Each segment has rounded [[lobes]]. Leaf shape varies, ...

The stem and leaves have long woolly hairs.

There are two varieties of California Buttercup. This picture shows var. [i]californicus[/i], with relatively tall 2 foot high stems. Var. [i]cune ...