Ranunculaceae

Buttercup family

From Streeter et al., 2016, 'Family Key':

"Flowers regular; petals free; stamens numerous (usually >2x the number of sepals)

Mostly herbs; leaves spirally arranged with sheathing bases, usually without stipules; flowers with distinct calyx and corolla or perianth undifferentiated; numbers of perianth parts variable; ovary superior, carpels numerous, free."

For the specimen(s) below, hover over image in gallery for description and select for a full screen preview.

ID: 015

Date: 30 Apr 2024

Locality: Page Hill, Buckingham

Location (Lat/Long): 52.00255, -0.97313

Landscape/habitat: At the side of a footpath, between the path and a fence.

Identification notes: At first I thought this could have been a meadow buttercup but then I saw the sepals that looked to be bent back i.e. 'strongly reflexed'.

From Streeter et al. (2016, p.82) description of characters, with my observations:

• Sepals strongly reflexed (as shown in the 1st image in the gallery)

• Base swollen (this was a little hard to tell without comparing to other bases, but it looked similar to the image in the book)

• Flowers Apr to Jun, earlier than R. acris and R. repens (the buttercups in the area had just started flowering so it was likely it would be this, rather than the other species)

Name: Bulbous Buttercup, Ranunculus bulbosus

References

Streeter, D., Hart-Davies, C., Hardcastle, A., Cole, F. and Harper, L. (2016) Collins wild flower guide. Revised and updated 2nd edition. edn. London: William Collins.