Creeping buttercup

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Creeping buttercup
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Ranunculales Family: Ranunculaceae Genus: Ranunculus Species: R. repens
Binomial name
Ranunculus repens L.

The Creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens) is a flowering plant in the Buttercup family, native to Europe and the Pacific Northwest. It has attractive yellow flowers and stolons, running stems, which produce roots and new plants at the nodes. Creeping buttercup has three-lobed dark green, white-spotted leaves that grow out of the node [1]. The stems also grow out of the nodes, and are quite hairy.

Creeping buttercup can be differentiated from other buttercups because the flowers produced are often larger than many other Ranuncules [2] (although in poor conditions the flowers may be as small as 10 mm diameter), there are stolons, and it is very low-lying.

[edit] Cultivation and uses

Creeping buttercup is native to Europe and the Pacific Northwest but was sold in many parts of the world as an ornamental flower [3]. It has now become an invasive species in many parts of the world. The plant grows in fields and pastures and prefers wet soil [3].

Like most buttercups Ranunculus repens is poisonous, although when dried with hay these poisons are lost. The taste of buttercups is acrid, so cattle avoid eating them. The plants then take advantage of the cropped ground around it to spread their stolons. Creeping buttercup also is spread through the transportation of hay [3]. Contact with the sap of the plant can cause skin and mucus membrane irritation [3].

[edit] References

• 1) Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens)
• 2) Richard H. Uva, Joseph C. Neal and Joseph M. Ditomaso, Weeds of The Northeast, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997), Pp. 294-295.
• 3) L.C. Burrill, January 1992, Creeping Buttercup: Ranunculus repens L.