Ficaria verna, commonly known as lesser celandine or pilewort, is a low-growing, hairless perennial flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae native to Europe and west Asia. It has fleshy dark green, heart-shaped leaves and distinctive flowers with bright yellow, glossy petals. It is now introduced in North America, where it is known by the common name fig buttercup and considered an invasive species. The plant is poisonous if ingested raw and potentially fatal to grazing animals and livestock such as horses, cattle, and sheep. For these reasons, several US states have banned the plant or listed it as a noxious weed. It prefers bare, damp ground and is considered by horticulturalists in the United Kingdom as a persistent garden weed; nevertheless, many specialist plantsmen, nursery owners and discerning gardeners in the UK and Europe collect selected cultivars of the plant, including bronze-leaved and double-flowered ones. Emerging in late winter with flowers appearing late February through May in the UK, its appearance across the landscape is regarded by many as a harbinger of spring.
Ranunculus is a large genus of about 600 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots.
Ranunculus repens, the creeping buttercup, is a flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to Europe, Asia and northwestern Africa. It is also called creeping crowfoot and sitfast.
Ranunculus bulbosus, commonly known as bulbous buttercup or St. Anthony's turnip, is a perennial flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It has bright yellow flowers, and deeply divided, three-lobed long-petioled basal leaves.
Ranunculus acris is a species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae, and is one of the more common buttercups across Europe and temperate Eurasia. Common names include meadow buttercup, tall buttercup, common buttercup and giant buttercup.
British NVC community OV4 is one of the open habitat communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of six arable weed and track-side communities of light, less-fertile acid soils.
Spergula arvensis, the corn spurry, stickwort, starwort or spurrey, is a species of plant in the genus Spergula.
Ranunculus glaberrimus, the sagebrush buttercup, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. It is native to interior western North America, in western Canada, the western United States, and the northwestern Great Plains.
Ceratocephala testiculata is a flowering plant that is native to Eurasia. Common names include bur buttercup and curveseed butterwort. It is very small, usually only about an inch or two tall, but potentially growing to four inches. The flowers are small and dull yellow. The leaves are hairy and somewhat dissected. It produces a cluster of hard, spiny fruits. Like other members of the buttercup family, they are poisonous. Where they are present in large numbers, it is usually an indication of excessive disturbance to the land.
Ranunculus sceleratus known by the common names celery-leaved buttercup, celery-leaf buttercup, and cursed buttercup is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It has a circumpolar distribution in the northern hemisphere, native to temperate and boreal North America and Eurasia, where it grows in wet and moist habitats, including ponds and streambanks.
Ficaria is a small genus of several species of plants in the family Ranunculaceae, which were previously grouped with Ranunculus. The genus includes Ficaria verna, known as fig buttercup or lesser celandine, and related species. The name "Ficaria" is Classical Latin for fig. Plants in the genus are closely related to true buttercups, but generally have only three sepals and swollen smooth achenes.
Arvensis, a Latin adjective meaning in the fields, is the specific epithet of the following:
Ranunculus bonariensis is a species of buttercup known by the common name Carter's buttercup. There are three varieties. Two are native to Chile and Argentina, and one is found in central California in the United States.
Ranunculus muricatus is a species of buttercup known by the common names rough-fruited buttercup and spinyfruit buttercup. It is native to Europe, but it can be found in many other places in the world, including parts of Africa, Australia, and the western and eastern United States, as an introduced species and agricultural and roadside weed. It grows in wet habitats, such as irrigation ditches. It is an annual or sometimes biennial herb producing a mostly hairless stem up to half a meter long which may grow erect or decumbent along the ground. The leaves have blades a few centimetres in length which are deeply divided into three lobes or split into three leaflets. They are hairless to hairy in texture, and are borne at the tips of long petioles. The flower has five shiny yellow petals under 1 centimetre (0.4 in) long around a lobed central receptacle studded with many stamens and pistils. The fruit is a spiny achene borne in a spherical cluster of 10 to 20.
Ranunculus parviflorus is a species of buttercup known by the common name smallflower buttercup. It is native to Europe, but it is known on other areas of the world as an introduced species and sometimes a roadside weed, for example, in parts of Australia and the United States.
Ranunculus sardous is a species of buttercup known by the common name hairy buttercup. It is native to Europe and it can be found in many other areas of the world, including parts of the United States and Australia, as an introduced species and a roadside and lawn weed. It grows in many types of disturbed habitat, especially in moist areas. It is an annual or biennial herb producing a mostly erect, hairy stem up to half a meter tall. The hairy leaves are usually divided into three leaflets which are borne on petioles a few centimeters in length. The flower has usually five yellow petals each up to a centimeter long and five reflexed sepals. The fruit is an achene borne in a spherical cluster of up to 35.
Ranunculus auricomus, known as goldilocks buttercup or Greenland buttercup, is a perennial species of buttercup native to Eurasia. It is a calcicole typically found in moist woods and at the margins of woods. It is apomictic, and several hundred agamospecies have been recognised.
Ranunculus aestivalis is a rare species of buttercup known by the common names fall buttercup and autumn buttercup. It is endemic to the state of Utah in the United States, where it exists only in Garfield County next to the Sevier River. It is restricted to a moist microhabitat in an otherwise dry, open ecosystem, and the amount of available habitat is very limited. This is a federally listed endangered species of the United States. It has been described as "the most graceful and showy members of the genus in the western United States," but also "one of the state's rarest and most restricted plants."
Ranunculus pedatifidus is a species of buttercup known by the common names surefoot buttercup, northern buttercup, and birdfoot buttercup. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the northern latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two varieties, var. pedatifidus occurring mostly in Asia and var. affinis mostly native to North America.
Ranunculus abortivus is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Its common names include littleleaf buttercup, small-flower crowfoot, small-flowered buttercup, and kidneyleaf buttercup. It is widespread across much of North America, found in all ten Canadian provinces as well as Yukon and the Northwest Territories, and most of the United States, except Hawaii, Oregon, California, and parts of the Southwest.
