Ranunculus orthorhynchus var. orthorhynchus

Straight beaked buttercup

Family: Ranunculaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Straight beaked buttercup is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and Modoc Plateau in meadows and marshy areas at elevations below 2,200 meters. Flowering from March to August, this plant produces flowers with rounded petals 4 to 6 millimeters wide, featuring red undersides. Growing with delicate stems, it forms low clusters with distinctive deeply divided leaves. Its basal leaves are intricately structured with 3 to 5 leaflets, each divided into segments that are elliptic to linear in shape, creating a lacy, intricate foliage pattern. The distinctive fruit features a short beak 3 to 3.8 millimeters long, with an aggregate fruit 5 to 7 millimeters wide that is hemispheric or occasionally spherical.

Habitat: Meadows, marshy areas

Bloom period: Mar-Aug

Elevation: < 2200 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRH, SNH, MP

California counties: Mendocino, Solano, Fresno, Del Norte, Tehama, Glenn, Tuolumne, Tulare, Nevada, Modoc, Placer, Plumas, Butte, Trinity, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Sierra, Mariposa, Siskiyou, El Dorado, Shasta, Alameda, Lassen, Napa, Yuba

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