California Buttercup

Ranunculus californicus flower

California Buttercup or Ranunculus californicus is a common species of buttercup though it seems that common buttercup (Ranunculus crepens) is much more...well... common. Up till now I have only seen the latter. The difference is in the number of petals: the creeping variety has only five while californicus has lots of petals (around twelve, though the number varies among species). The leaves are similar: deeply lobed dark green. In fact even in this area this plant is not widespread, unlike creeping buttercup, california variety is rather sparse.

Below you can see the different species of ranunculus.  As the name implies, both are part of the family Ranunculaceae.

California buttercup in the oak grove

And here is the picture of creeping buttercup for comparison:

Creeping buttercup is at home in all kinds  of habitat

Want to see the cultivated variety? Ranunculus makes a vary nice decorative flower as well. Of course you can hardly recognize it, like a rose cultivar, it looks quite different from its wild brothers. In fact, to me it looks very much like a rose.

 Yellow ranunculus cultivar