Ranunculus flabellaris

Yellow water buttercup

Family: Ranunculaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Yellow water buttercup is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern coastal redwood habitat, and North Coast Mountains in shallow water and drying mud areas at elevations of 900 to 2,000 meters. Flowering from April to August, this plant produces yellow flowers 7 to 12 millimeters wide with distinctive rounded petals. Growing up to 70 centimeters tall, it forms floating or decumbent stems that root at lower nodes and spread across wet surfaces. Its distinctive leaves are semicircular to kidney-shaped, with blades that are deeply lobed or dissected into rounded or thread-like segments. The fruit is small and lenticular, with a straight lanceolate beak 1 to 1.8 millimeters long.

Habitat: Shallow water, drying mud

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: 900-2000 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, MP

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