Buttercup IDs

The side view on the flower is important because you need to see the sepals to ID. The sepals are still too hard to see here. Here are some websites with good descriptions for telling some of our buttercups apart:
http://www.acerecology.co.uk/buttercups/
https://lizzieharper.co.uk/2016/02/botanical-illustration-buttercup-species/

Hooked vs. R. abortivus from srall
So, I learned R. abortivus as "kidney leaved buttercup" and I think it's much more helpful, as R. abortivus only has kidney shaped basal leaves plus some usually undivided but at least very narrow stem leaves. These big, broad, three-parted leaves are never seen on R. abortivus. There are other Ranunculus that have this shape leaf, but R. recurvatus is the common one.

Posted on May 9, 2019 02:22 PM by javiehweg