Ireland has three different kinds of buttercups
BUTTERCUPS are putting on a great show at present. Did you know that we have three different kinds of them? All three are native Irish wild plants and all three are common and widespread.
The trio can be found growing in close proximity and since all three have yellow flowers with five brightly-coloured petals they all look superficially alike. However, they are easy to tell apart once you get your eye in.
The first thing that needs to be done is to turn a flower over and look under the bright yellow petals. There you will see the ring of five sepals, the greenish coverings that enclosed the flower when it was a bud.
As the bud opened the five sepals folded back to allow the five petals to emerge. The folding back of the sepals is the key to telling the three species apart. In one species the sepals fold back completely and lie pressed against the stalk that supports the flower; in the other two the sepals fold back only partially and remain pressed against the petals.
The one with the sepals bent back sharply is the Bulbous Buttercup so called because it is the only one of the trio that has a bulb underground. While it is called ‘ bulbous’ the ‘ bulb’ is technically a corm rather than a bulb as it is it a swelling at the base of the stem; a bulb is a swollen bud.
The Bulbous Buttercup is frequent and widespread throughout Ireland except in the south-west where it tends to be rare.
The two buttercups with sepals pressed against the petals are separated by rolling the flower stalk between finger and thumb. The flower of the Meadow Buttercup has a stalk that feels smooth while that of the Creeping Buttercup feels rough as it is ridged and furrowed.
As its name tells us, the Creeping Buttercup has stout creeping and rooting runners making it an unwelcome pest in garden lawns as it spreads extensively. Its leaves are triangular in shape, are three-lobed and are coarsely toothed as pictured above.
The Meadow Buttercup has no runners, its leaves are circular in outline and are deeply divided. Like the Creeping Buttercup, it is also an abundant and widespread wildflower.
Creeping Buttercup is the best of the three at tolerating wet conditions; Bulbous Buttercup is best in drier conditions even thriving in the arid conditions found in seaside sand dunes.