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Meadow buttercup is a widespread and common perennial in meadows and pastures, and is also found in parks, gardens and at woodland edges. It prefers slightly damper, calcareous sites, where it can grow so dense that it forms yellow meadows that dazzle in the sunshine. It flowers between April and October. Meadow Buttercup usually grows to a height of about 75cm but can reach a metre or more. This hairy perennial has toothed, palmate lower leaves and a few lanceolate leaves at flower stalk junctions. Flowers are borne singly on unfurrowed stalks branching from stems, with a terminal flower on a stem rather longer than the others. Meadow Buttercup, Tall buttercup, Showy buttercup: Family: Ranunculaceae: USDA hardiness: Coming soon: Known Hazards: All parts of the plant are poisonous, the toxins can be destroyed by heat or by drying4, 10, 13, 19, 62, 65. The plant has a strongly acrid juice that can cause blistering to.

Ranunculus acris is a species of flowering plant in the familyRanunculaceae, and is one of the more common buttercups across Europe and temperate Eurasia. Common names include meadow buttercup,^[1]tall buttercup,^[2]common buttercup and giant buttercup.

Description[edit]

Ranunculus acris is a herbaceousperennial plant that grows to a height of 30 to 70 cm, with ungrooved flowing stems bearing glossy yellow flowers about 25 mm across. There are five overlapping petals borne above five green sepals that soon turn yellow as the flower matures. It has numerous stamens inserted below the ovary. The leaves are compound, with three-lobed leaflets. Unlike Ranunculus repens, the terminal leaflet is sessile. As with other members of the genus, the numerous seeds are borne as achenes.

The rare autumn buttercup (R. aestivalis) is sometimes treated as a variety of this species.^[3]

The juice of the plant is semi-poisonous to livestock, causing blistering.^[4]

Distribution[edit]

The plant is native to Eurasia, but has been introduced across much of the world so that it now has a circumpolar distribution.^[5] It is a naturalized species and often a weed in parts of North America,^[6] but it is probably native in Alaska and Greenland.^[7] In New Zealand it is a serious pasture weed costing the dairy industry hundreds of millions of dollars.^[8] It has become one of the few pasture weeds that has developed a resistance to herbicides.^[9]

Meadow Buttercup Symbolize

Meadow Buttercup Ranunculus Acris

Cultivation[edit]

In horticulture the species may be regarded as a troublesome weed, colonising lawns and paths. However, it may be a welcome feature of wildflower meadows. The double-flowered cultivarR. acris 'Flore Pleno' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.^[10][11]

Toxicity[edit]

Meadow Buttercup Plant Family

Oils in the plant, probably present in the leaves and stems, can cause abdominal pains if consumed. When eaten by animals, the buttercups have caused diarrhea and blindness.^[12]

Uses by Native Americans[edit]

The Abenaki smash the flowers and leaves and sniff them for headaches.^[13] The Bella Coola apply a poultice of pounded roots to boils.^[14] The Micmac use the leaves for headaches.^[15] The Montagnais inhale the crushed leaves for headaches.^[16]

The Cherokee use it as a poultice for abscesses, use an infusion for oral thrush, and use the juice as a sedative.^[17] They also cook the leaves and eat them as greens.^[17]

The Iroquois apply a poultice of the smashed plant to the chest for pains and for colds, take an infusion of the roots for diarrhea,^[18] and apply a poultice of plant fragments with another plant to the skin for excess water in the blood.^[19]

References[edit]

Meadow Buttercup

1. ^BSBI List 2007(xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original(xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
2. ^'Ranunculus acris'. Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA. Retrieved 18 October 2015.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
3. ^USDA Plants Profile: R. aestivalis.
4. ^Common Weeds of the United States. New York: Dover. 1971. p. 186. ISBN0-486-20504-5.
5. ^'Ranunculus acris'. Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora. Biological Records Centre and Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
6. ^Invasive Weeds of King County, Washington
7. ^Flora of North America
8. ^Bourdôt, GW; Saville DJ (2010-08-31). 'Giant buttercup - a threat to sustainable dairy farming in New Zealand'. Proceedings of the Australasian Dairy Science Symposium: 355–359.
9. ^Cronshaw, Tim (18 May 2012). 'Profit-strangling weed immune to hebicides'. The Press.
10. ^'RHS Plant Selector - Ranunculus acris 'Flore Pleno''. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
11. ^'AGM Plants - Ornamental'(PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 84. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
12. ^Elias, Thomas S.; Dykeman, Peter A. (2009) [1982]. Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 Natural Foods. New York: Sterling. p. 262. ISBN978-1-4027-6715-9. OCLC244766414.
13. ^Rousseau, Jacques 1947 Ethnobotanique Abenakise. Archives de Folklore 11:145-182 (p. 166)
14. ^Smith, Harlan I. 1929 Materia Medica of the Bella Coola and Neighboring Tribes of British Columbia. National Museum of Canada Bulletin 56:47-68 (p. 57)
15. ^Chandler, R. Frank, Lois Freeman and Shirley N. Hooper 1979 Herbal Remedies of the Maritime Indians. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 1:49-68 (p. 60)
16. ^Speck, Frank G. 1917 Medicine Practices of the Northeastern Algonquians. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Americanists Pp. 303-321 (p. 315)
17. ^ ^abHamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey 1975 Cherokee Plants and Their Uses -- A 400 Year History. Sylva, N.C. Herald Publishing Co. (p. 31)
18. ^Herrick, James William 1977 Iroquois Medical Botany. State University of New York, Albany, PhD Thesis (p. 320)
19. ^Rousseau, Jacques 1945 Le Folklore Botanique De Caughnawaga. Contributions de l'Institut botanique l'Universite de Montreal 55:7-72 (p. 42)

External links[edit]

Ranunculus acris

We have all been very familiar with buttercup flowers since childhood. However, the buttercups that grow so well in your garden are a different type from the ones which are common in our woodland. Our meadow buttercups (also known as 'Tall buttercups') can grow anywhere between 20-90 cm tall, as they stand erect with their glossy yellow flowers held at the tips of the tall stems. They are happiest amongst long grass in slightly damp, chalky soils, where they can grow so dense that they forms yellow meadows that dazzle in the sunshine throughout their flowering period, between April and October.

On the other hand, the Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens) is the species we see strewn through the short grass of domestic lawns (at least, our lawns!) and amongst our borders. Its habit of growing close to the ground and spreading by producing long runners enables it to colonise new areas – and also to survive the depredations of the lawn mower! It is much more of a survivor than our Meadow Buttercup, which might not cope nearly as well with the sequence of mowings that would go on in a 'normal' year.

All of the buttercup family (the Ranunculaceae) have flowers with the same basic structure, although not all (by any manner of means) are yellow in colour. However, the differences between the flowers of our two common buttercups are very slight and their flat, open and simple flower structure make them excellent subjects to look at if one wishes to understand the process by which plants are able to use their flowers to make seeds.
That could be the subject of another TarvinOnLine article – perhaps a piece of 'Lockdown Science' for anyone who is interested.