Glacier buttercup is a small, cold-adapted alpine perennial with a single large white-to-pink flower, native to high mountains and Arctic regions. It is not a practical garden plant; it needs cold, gritty, well-drained conditions and cool summers to survive.
Family
Ranunculaceae (Buttercup family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Keep the soil evenly moist during the growing season and never let it dry out completely; avoid waterlogging.
Soil
Gritty, free-draining mineral mix with added grit or stone chips.
Temperature
Cool conditions suit it best; it tolerates hard winter cold but struggles in warm summers and heat.
How easy
Hard
Safety
Toxic: All parts of buttercups contain protoanemonin, which causes skin blistering and mouth and stomach irritation if eaten.. Toxic to cats and dogs (ASPCA).
Native range
E. Greenland to Subarctic and Subalpine Eurasia
Climate
subalpine or subarctic
About
Ranunculus glacialis, the glacier buttercup or glacier crowfoot, is a plant of the family Ranunculaceae. It is a 5-10(-20) cm high perennial herb. Often with a single relatively large (1.8 - 3.8 cm) flower, with 5 petals first white later pink or reddish. The underside of the 5 sepals are densely brown-hairy. The leaves are fleshy, shiny, and deeply loped, forming 3 leaflets. Ranunculus glacialis is reported (from Greenland material) to have a diploid chromosome number of 2n = 16.
Where it grows
Ranunculus glacialis is an Arctic–alpine species, found in the high mountains of southern Europe (Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, Sierra Nevada) as well as on the Scandinavian peninsula, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Jan Mayen, Svalbard, eastern Greenland and Finland, where it is endangered and protected.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ranunculus glacialis 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.