Americanized Creeping Buttercup Gardens Lock in Toxins, Viruses, Weeds

Summary: Americanized creeping buttercup gardens keep toxic weeds away from toxin-sensitive livestock and from virus-susceptible ornamentals and vegetables.

creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens) flower and foliage: Leslie J. Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0 United States, via Forestry Images

Americanized creeping buttercup gardens assemble native and non-native ornamental, but poisonous, weedy relatives in the Ranunculaceae family of buttercup and crowfoot herbs, shrubs and vines as ground cover on less cultivated sites.

The bitter juice in creeping buttercup sap bloats the bodies and bothers the mouths and the intestinal tracts of cattle more than of horses and sheep. The herbaceous perennial carries the anemone mosaic virus and the tomato spotted wilt virus and commandeers low-lying pastures and poor-draining fields through its seeds and stolons. The Mexican federal, the Massachusetts state and the Quebec provincial governments designate creeping buttercup a poisonous weed that destroys crop yields, ecosystem well-being and species diversity.

Non-native evergreen, oriental and yellow clematises, lesser celandine and tall buttercup encounter similar governmental designations while native cursed crowfoot, low larkspur and red baneberry experience none.

The seedling stage furnishes oval embryonic leaves, called cotyledons, each 0.19 to 0.28 inches (5 to 7 millimeters) across, followed by first- through mature-stage, three-lobed foliage.

Mature alternate, white-mottled leaves, 1.18 to 3.15 inches (3 to 8 centimeters) across, get 0.59- to 2.36-inch- (1.5- to 6-centimeter-) long terminal lobes and toothed margins. The dark green foliage on mature creeping buttercup has long-stalked lower leaves, stalked, 0.19- to 1.97-inch- (0.5- to 5-centimeter-) long middle segments and stalkless upper leaves. Mature creeping buttercup shoots include basal leaves 0.39 to 3.35 inches (1 to 8.5 centimeters) long and 0.59 to 3.94 inches (1.5 to 10 centimeters) wide.

Americanized creeping buttercup gardens jumble stalked and stalkless leaves, and March- to August-blooming, perfect inflorescences called corymbs, on 3.94- to 11.81-inch- (10- to 30-centimeter-) long stems.

Moisture-loving creeping buttercup, described by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778) and named Ranunculus repens (little frog crawling), knows prostrate, rooting-friendly growth habits.

Dense-haired stems with leaf-to-stem attachments called nodes, horizontal stems called stolons with internodes and thickly fibrous roots leave creeping buttercup with reproduction means supplementary to seeding. Each stolon's three to six nodes, like stem nodes and with 1.58- to 3.15-inch- (4- to 8-centimeter-) long interleaf stretches, may root and start new plants. They nurture yellow flowers, 0.79 to 1.18 inches (2 to 3 centimeters) across, with five sepals and five to nine petals in Americanized creeping buttercup gardens.

Hairy, 0.16- to 0.24-inch- (4- to 6-millimeter-) long sepals occur with 0.16- to 0.67-inch- (6- to 17-millimeter-) long, 0.16- to 0.59-inch- (4- to 15-millimeter-) wide petals.

Flowers holding numerous pistils and stamens, opening mornings and shutting mid-afternoons, precede dry, fruiting, globe-shaped, nonexplosive achenes, 0.19 to 0.39 inches (5 to 10 millimeters) across.

The fruiting achenes' light- to black-brown, oblong to oval seeds, with triangular, 0.03- to 0.06-inch- (0.7- to 1.4-millimeter-) long beaks, quit germinating below 1.18-inch (3-centimeter) depths. The 0.08- to 0.14-inch- (2- to 3.5-millimeter-) long, 0.08- to 0.11-inch- (2- to 2.8-millimeter-) wide seeds require light-enhanced germination and retain 80-year viabilities in waterlogged soils. Each creeping buttercup optimally scatters 77 to 140 seeds per growing season and, with rooting stems and stolons, stretches its and its community's total ground coverage.

Baneberry, buttercup, celandine, clematis and crowfoot try farmer, gardener and rancher patience least in Americanized creeping buttercup gardens away from anemones, columbines, hellebores, livestock and tomatoes.

field of creeping buttercup plants: Leslie J. Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0 United States, via Forestry Images

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens) flower and foliage: Leslie J. Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0 United States, via Forestry Images @ http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=5446857

field of creeping buttercup plants: Leslie J. Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0 United States, via Forestry Images @ http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=5446848

For further information:

Dickinson, Richard; and Royer, France. 2014. Weeds of North America. Chicago IL; London, England: The University of Chicago Press.

Linnaeus, Carl. 1753. "26. Ranunculus repens." Species Plantarum, vol. I: 554. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvi [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358573

"Ranunculus repens L." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/27100216

Weakley, Alan S.; Ludwig, J. Christopher; and Townsend, John F. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Edited by Bland Crowder. Fort Worth TX: BRIT Press, Botanical Research Institute of Texas.