Ranunculus californicus var. californicus

Common buttercup

Family: Ranunculaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Common buttercup is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, Sierra Nevada foothills, Great Valley, central western, and southwestern regions in grassland and open woodland habitats at elevations below 2,000 meters. Flowering from March to August, this plant produces bright yellow flowers with distinctive rounded petals. Growing with erect to decumbent stems that can be glabrous or spread with delicate hairs, it reaches heights of 20 to 40 centimeters. Its leaves are complex, typically 2.8 to 5.8 centimeters long and 4 to 6 centimeters wide, with segments that may be undivided or partially lobed, featuring ultimate segments that are oblong-elliptic to lanceolate with acute or rounded-acute tips. The fruit is small, with a body measuring 1.8 to 3.2 millimeters long and 1.4 to 2.4 millimeters wide.

Habitat: Grassland, open woodland

Bloom period: Mar-Aug

Elevation: < 2000 m

Bioregions: NW, SNF, GV, CW, SW

California counties: San Luis Obispo, Contra Costa, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Madera, San Mateo, Sonoma, Santa Clara, Alameda, San Benito, Amador, Humboldt, Kern, Mendocino, Merced, Santa Cruz, Marin, Fresno, Stanislaus, Mariposa, Napa, San Francisco, Kings, San Bernardino, Ventura, Tuolumne, Sacramento, Butte, Sutter, Tulare, San Joaquin, Modoc, Colusa, Yolo, Shasta, Del Norte, Trinity

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.