RANUNCULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 159 
MEADOW BUTTERCUP 
Raniinculus dcris, L. 
Other English names: Tall Crowfoot, Butter Flower, Blister Flower, 
Goldcup, Kingcup. 
Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: May to September. 
Seed-time: June to October. 
Range: Throughout the United States and Canada; most common 
and troublesome at the North. 
Habitat: Meadows, pastures, roadsides, and waste places. 
The juices of this weed are so acrid as to draw blisters when 
applied to the skin. Grazing cattle seem to know its character and 
shun the plant. This irritant 
quality is dispelled in drying, 
however, and, though as hay the 
plant is woody and innutritious, 
it will not then injure the mouths 
and intestines of animals that 
eat it. 
Stem two to three feet tall, 
springing from clustered and 
fibrous roots, erect, hollow, hairy, 
branched at top. Basal leaves 
tufted, three- to seven-parted, 
the divisions again cleft into 
several narrow, pointed lobes; 
petioles Jong, slender, and hairy ; 
upper leaves short-petioled, dis- 
tant, usually three-parted. 
Flowers bright yellow, nearly an 
inch broad, the five petals broadly 
obovate, much longer than the 
spreading calyx. Fruits in small, 
globose heads, the achenes some- 
what compressed, and with short- 
pointed beaks. (Fig. 109.) 
Means of control 
Fic. 109. — Meadow Buttercup 
(Ranunculus acris). -X 4. 
Where the plants are few, pulling and hoe-cutting will repay the 
labor; but grass lands too rankly cursed with Ranunculus should 
