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Ranunculus acris
Also called Tall buttercup, Common buttercup, Giant buttercup, Tall Crowfoot, Tall Field Buttercup
Meadow buttercup is a common perennial wildflower of Europe and temperate Eurasia, grown in wildflower meadows and often treated as a weed in lawns. It thrives in open, sunny, moist grassland and spreads readily by seed.
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.
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 cultivar R. acris 'Flore Pleno' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Oils in the plant, probably present in the leaves and stems, contain the glycoside ranunculin, which when ingested can cause abdominal pains and intestinal disorders. When eaten by animals, the buttercups have caused blistering of the tongue and lips, diarrhea and blindness. Other symptoms of poisoning include ventricular fibrillation and respiratory failure.
The plant is native to Eurasia, but has been introduced across much of the world so that it now has a circumpolar distribution. It is a naturalized species and often a weed in parts of North America, but it is probably native in Alaska and Greenland. In New Zealand it is a serious pasture weed costing the dairy industry hundreds of millions of dollars. It has become one of the few pasture weeds that has developed a resistance to herbicides.
The Abenaki smash the flowers and leaves and sniff them for headaches. The Bella Coola apply a poultice of pounded roots to boils. The Mi'kmaq use the leaves for headaches. The Innu inhale the crushed leaves for headaches.
Littleleaf buttercup · Aconite-leaf buttercup · White water crowfoot · Asian Buttercup · Brackish Water-crowfoot · St. Anthony's turnip · Ranunculus calandrinioides · California buttercup · Greater creeping spearwort · Glacier buttercup · Ranunculus gramineus · Ivy buttercup
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ranunculus acris by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
