Ranunculus orthorhynchus / straightbeak buttercup

Adjectives: fen, leaves, native, poisonous, striking, wet meadows

Also known as: birdsfoot buttercup, swamp buttercup

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The straightbeak buttercup is a stiff-hairy perennial herb that grows from thickened roots. It is found on stream banks and in wet meadows, in mountain meadows and on slopes, and in fens and on the banks of irrigation ditches in the Valley proper.

The flowers of this species look like, well, buttercups. More distinguishing features are the pedicels which are up to 6 inches long, the soft hairs one sepals, and of course, the 5 (or up to 8) shiny yellow petals. The sepals are also usually reflexed, i.e. bent backwards and may be purplish. Also of course, the flowers have large numbers of both stamens and pistils. Flowering begins, here, in late June and continues to early August.

Straightbeak buttercup leaves are mostly basal and have long – as much as 8 inches – petioles. The blades are compound, usually with leaflets separated by deep clefts. Each of these is further divided into 3 to 5 major, irregularly toothed lobes.

Overall, identification of the buttercups can be quite problematic, made slightly easier by restricting the possibilities to a local set. This species is a good example of the problem; it looks very much like R. occidentalis, and differentiation by real botanists is based on one pretty obscure character that is not visible in a cell phone photo. The ID in this case – from photos and descriptions – really came down to distribution; R. occidentalis is not listed in most accounts as occurring in Idaho, but rather, is restricted to the coastal states.