Buttercups - CELERY-LEAVED/TALL/CREEPING
There are 3 types of buttercups found in Ontario: celery-leaved, tall and creeping.
Scientific Names: Celery-leaved buttercup, Ranunculus sceleratus L.; Tall buttercup, Ranunculus acris L.; Creeping buttercup, Ranunculus repens L.
Other Names
| Celery-leaved Buttercup |
Tall Buttercup |
Creeping Buttercup |
- Renoncule scélérate
- Cursed crowfoot
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- Renoncule âcre
- Field buttercup
- Meadow buttercup
- Tall crowfoot
- Tall field buttercup
- Bouton-d’or
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- Renoncule rampante
- Petite-douve
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Family: Buttercup Family (Ranunculaceae)
General Description
| Celery-leaved Buttercup |
Tall Buttercup |
Creeping Buttercup |
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- Perennial
- Reproducing by seed and by trailing horizontal stems which root at the nodes
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Habitat
| Celery-leaved Buttercup |
Tall Buttercup |
Creeping Buttercup |
- Found in southern and western Ontario in swamps, ditches, road-sides pastures, fields, mudflats and the edges of ponds and lakes.
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- One of the most common weeds of pastures, meadows, and road-sides throughout Ontario. It can grow in a wide variety of habitats.
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- Occurs in scattered localities throughout Ontario in habitats similar to tall buttercup, but is much less common.
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Seedlings
Stems
| Celery-leaved Buttercup |
Tall Buttercup |
Creeping Buttercup |
- Erect
- 5- 60 cm (2- 24 in.) high
- Stout
- Hollow
- Smooth
- Branched above
- Often somewhat succulent
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- Erect
- 30- 100 cm (12- 40 in.) high
- Hairy throughout
- Branched in the upper part
- 1 or several from a thick rootstalk with numerous, spreading, coarse, fibrous roots
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- Prostrate or nearly erect
- 20- 30 cm (8- 12 in.) high
- Ranging from smooth to densely hairy
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Leaves
| Celery-leaved Buttercup |
Tall Buttercup |
Creeping Buttercup |
- Succulent
- Long-stalked
- Somewhat kidney-shaped in outline and distinctly 3-lobed to nearly 3-parted
- The segments cleft or lobed or with rounded teeth
- Upper leaves much smaller, commonly either having 3 linear oblong segments with entire, or only slightly, toothed divisions, or simple
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- Basal and alternate
- Softly hairy
- Very deeply lobed and toothed
- Basal and lower leaves long-stalked
- Blade deeply divided into 5 lobes irregularly jagged or coarsely toothed
- Middle similar to lower leaves but nearly stalkless
- Upper leaves progressively smaller with fewer and smoother lobes
- Base of each leafstalk flattened and partly surrounding the stem at each node
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- Alternate
- Often clustered
- Mostly with long stalks
- The blades 3-parted
- Middle segment with a distinct short stalk
- Each segment lobed and toothed
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Flowers
| Celery-leaved Buttercup |
Tall Buttercup |
Creeping Buttercup |
- Numerous but borne singly on long stalks at the ends of branches
- The whole inflorescence either rounded or elongated
- Sepals: 2- 5 mm (1/12- 1/5 in.) long with soft hairs
- Petals: pale yellow, 1- 5 mm (1/25- 1/5 in.) long
- Stamens: many in a ring surrounding the many tiny pistils
- Seeds: individually very small, 0.8- 1.4 mm (1/30- 1/20 in.) long, but very numerous in a short cylindrical cluster
- Flowers from May to September
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- Grouped on long stalks in a much-branched inflorescence
- Bright yellow
- 2- 3 cm (4/5- 1 ¼ in.) in diameter
- 5 sepals: green and small
- 5 petals
- Stamens: numerous around the cluster of tiny pistils
- Seeds: 3 mm (1/8 in.) long, flattened, egg-shaped in outline with short hooked tip
- Flowering and setting seed from late May throughout the summer and fall
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- Similar to tall buttercup
- Flowers from April to July
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Often Confused With
Wood-sorrel (Wood-sorrel’s growth is less upright and its flowers aren’t as large or showy)
Caution: The buttercups have a bitter, acrid juice which causes severe pain and inflammation when grazed by livestock. They are normally avoided, but when other feed becomes scarce they may be grazed with serious consequences.
