Ranunculus cymbalaria

Alkali buttercup

Family: Ranunculaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Alkali buttercup is a California native perennial found in northern California, Sierra Nevada, southwestern California, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions in muddy, brackish or alkaline places at elevations up to 3,200 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces white to yellow flowers with five petals 2 to 7 millimeters long. Growing with horizontal stolons and erect stems 3 to 20 centimeters tall, it spreads across wet ground with distinctive creeping habit. Its basal leaves are oblong to rounded, 0.7 to 3.8 centimeters long, with crenate or crenate-serrate edges and a rounded base. The fruit develops as a small lenticular body with longitudinal ribs and a tiny persistent beak.

Habitat: Muddy places, generally brackish or alkaline

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: < 3200 m

Bioregions: CaR, SNH, SW, GB, DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, Modoc, Inyo, Mono, Lassen, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Alpine, Ventura, San Diego, Plumas, Sierra, Tuolumne, Fresno, Santa Barbara

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