A golden woodland buttercup that flowers in March and April, its petals often uneven, ragged or missing
Goldilocks buttercup — Ranunculus auricomus.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Goldilocks buttercup
Native · flowers Mar–May, peaking April · deciduous woodland on base-rich soils
Ranunculus auricomus — Ranunculaceae
Goldilocks buttercup is a woodland buttercup that flowers weeks before its meadow relatives, opening glossy golden flowers in March and April on the floor of deciduous woods, hedge banks and churchyards. Its petals are often ragged, uneven or missing altogether, which is the quickest way to know it.
How to spot them
- ▸Petals are frequently uneven, ragged or reduced in number, so a flower may look lopsided or half-finished
- ▸Basal leaves are rounded or kidney-shaped and lobed; the stem leaves are narrow and deeply cut into finger-like strips
- ▸Flowers March to May, several weeks before the common buttercups of meadows
- ▸Grows in shade in deciduous woodland, especially on chalk, limestone or clay, rather than in open pasture
- ▸Look-alike: lesser celandine has glossy, heart-shaped, undivided leaves and many narrow petals; meadow buttercups have hairy, deeply cut leaves and flower later in open grassland
How to know it
The Latin epithet means 'golden-haired', a reference to the yellow flowers of this woodland buttercup
Ranunculus auricomus — auricomus = golden-haired, hence Goldilocks.
Rounded lower leaves and narrow, finger-like upper leaves on a buttercup that grows in shade under deciduous trees on chalk or clay
Goldilocks buttercup.
In Britain and Ireland this buttercup begins growth in very early spring and blooms weeks ahead of the bulbous buttercup
Goldilocks buttercup — the BSBI says it flowers several weeks before all other buttercups.
This buttercup is an apomictic complex: seed forms without normal fertilisation, giving hundreds of near-identical microspecies on the continent
Goldilocks buttercup — the BSBI describes it as a complex of pseudogamous apomicts.
A buttercup of deciduous woods, scrub and churchyards, generally assumed to be an ancient woodland indicator
Goldilocks buttercup — though in Belgium it can colonise recent woods.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Ranunculaceae; the epithet auricomus means golden-haired, the source of the common name Goldilocks
- •According to the BSBI it flowers from March to May, peaking in April, and begins growth earlier than any other British buttercup
- •Native in Britain and Ireland; GB Red List status Least Concern
- •A complex of pseudogamous apomicts: seed is set without normal fertilisation, so many local forms exist
- •Petals are often missing or reduced, giving a ragged look unlike other buttercups
- •Generally assumed to be an ancient woodland indicator, though studies elsewhere in Europe suggest it can also colonise newer woods
- •Grows on chalk, limestone and other base-rich, often clay soils, and occasionally in scrub, on roadsides and in churchyards
- •Like other buttercups it is acrid, so grazing animals tend to avoid it
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Sources
- Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland — Ranunculus auricomus L. (Goldilocks Buttercup)