Creeping Buttercup

Description:

It is a herbaceous, stoloniferous perennial plant growing to 50 cm tall. It has both prostrate running stems, which produce roots and new plants at the nodes, and more or less erect flowering stems. The basal leaves are divided into three broad leaflets 1.5–8 cm long, shallowly to deeply lobed, borne on a 4–20 cm long petiole; leaves higher on the stems are smaller, with narrower leaflets. Both the stems and the leaves are finely hairy. The flowers are bright golden yellow, 2–3 cm diameter, usually with five petals. The fruit is a cluster of achenes 2.5–4 mm long

Habitat:

Creeping Buttercup was sold in many parts of the world as an ornamental plant, and has now become an invasive species in many parts of the world. This one was photographed on the trail to Slick Rock Falls in the Pisgah National Forest in Transylvania County, NC.

Notes:

Like most buttercups, R. repens is poisonous, although when dried with hay these poisons are lost. The taste of buttercups is acrid, so cattle avoid eating them. The plants then take advantage of the cropped ground around it to spread their stolons. Creeping buttercup also is spread through the transportation of hay. Contact with the sap of the plant can cause skin blistering.