Ranunculus repens

Creeping buttercup

Family: Ranunculaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Creeping buttercup is a naturalized perennial herb found in northern California coastal regions, high Cascade Range, northern and central Sierra Nevada, central Coast, and San Francisco Bay Area in meadows, road banks, and stream edges at elevations below 1,600 meters. Flowering all year, this plant produces white to yellow flowers with 5 to 150 petals 6 to 18 millimeters long. Growing with decumbent or creeping stems 10 to 60 centimeters tall that root at the nodes, it spreads across disturbed ground. Its distinctive leaves are broadly ovate to kidney-shaped, divided into three-part leaflets with lobed segments, each ultimate leaflet having an obovate or elliptic shape with toothed edges. The fruit develops as a small disk-like body with a curved, lanceolate beak.

Habitat: Meadows, road banks, disturbed places, edges of marshes, streams

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: < 1600 m

Bioregions: NCo, NCoRI, CaRH, n&ampc SNH, CCo, SnFrB, MP

California counties: Humboldt, Mendocino, Monterey, Lake, Marin, Modoc, Sonoma, Siskiyou, Santa Cruz, Plumas, Del Norte, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Alameda, Butte, Fresno, Contra Costa, Alpine

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