I STILL LIKE BUTTERCUPS

FLOWERS: WHY THEY'RE CALLED "BUTTERCUPS"

LEAVES: WHY THEY'RE  IN THE  "CROWFOOT" FAMILY

Saturday (posted late Friday evening).  Posts will be sporadic for the next week, as we are traveling first to Columbus, Ohio, and then on to Buffalo, New York on family business.  We will try to get out of the house early.  We are taking Buddy along, as he was left at the kennel on our last trip and we feel guilty leaving him again so soon.
   The common yellow buttercup of our area is probably Ranunculus acris, in the Crowfoot (Ranunculaceae) Family.  This European introduction has been blooming in roadside ditches everywhere since late spring, but has finally run its course and is disappearing. I won't try to go any further into the taxonomy of these ubiquitous plants.  
   These cheerful little roadside flowers are so diminutive and common that it is rather easy to ignore them.  And that's not fair, as they do a great job of decorating ditches and waste places that otherwise would be without much charm. Unfortunately, they may also cause a rash if handled, and most are poisonous to cattle; but they are only eaten out of desperation, as they evidently taste very bad (don't try it).
   The genus name translates from the latin as "little frog," relating to the wet habitat of most buttercups.  The species name acris refers to its unpleasant taste.  Not a great bio.
 P.S. I still like them.