YELLOW AND YELLOWISH FLOWERS 
Buttercups and the Yellow Water Crowfoot 
Bulbous Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus) . Crowfoot 
family. May to July. 
One of the earliest, rarely over a foot high, from a bulbous 
root. The flowers are solitary, one inch across; generally five 
petals; five sepals, bent back. Seed-vessels with short beaks. 
Leaves three-divided, each division again cut into rounded lobes. 
Fields and roadsides, everywhere. Hooked Crowfoot {R. recur- 
vatus) also has sepals bent back, but grows in woods, has small 
petals, seed-vessels with hooked beaks, and leaves rarely divided. 
The Latin ranunculus means tadpole. 
Swamp Buttercup {Ranunculus septentrionalis) . Crowfoot 
family. April to July. 
A coarse buttercup, sometimes two to three feet high, the 
stems running along the ground, again ascending. The bright 
yellow flowers are an inch or more across. Leaves large, on 
long stalks, with three leaflets, deeply cut, somewhat wedge- 
-*.§haped. The beaks of the seed-cases are long and pointed. 
Marshy ground. 
Small-flowered Crowfoot {Ranunculus abortivus). Crow- 
foot family. April to June. 
A plant six inches to two feet high with inconspicuous flowers; 
tiny light yellow petals; sepals bent back. Beak of seed-vessel 
tiny. Lower leaves kidney-shaped, upper deeply cut. Moist 
ground. Bristly Crowfoot (R. pennsylvanicus) is similar, with 
fruit-head larger (one-third inch), lower leaves divided. 
Tall Buttercup {Ranunculus acris). Crowfoot family. 
May to September. 
The common buttercup of the fields. Flowers on the end of 
long stalks. Beaks of the seed-vessels short. Leaves deeply 
parted, lobes deeply cut. 
62 
