Ranunculus lappaceus

Ranunculus lappaceus, the common buttercup or Australian buttercup, is a perennial herb of the Ranunculaceae native to southeastern Australia, occurring across Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, where it grows in moist meadows, grassy open woodlands, creek banks and damp forest clearings from sea level to about 1,200 m elevation. It develops a short, woody rootstock bearing a basal rosette of long-petioled leaves divided into three to five deeply lobed and irregularly toothed segments, soft-textured and clothed with fine spreading hairs on both petiole and stem. Erect to ascending, branched flowering stems 20-50 cm tall arise in spring and early summer, bearing solitary, long-pedunculate flowers 2-4 cm across; each flower has five glossy, bright golden-yellow rounded petals, five hairy green sepals and many stamens surrounding a central head of carpels. The fruits are bristly hooked achenes 4-5 mm long, grouped into a globose head, the hooked beak adapted to animal dispersal — the source of the species epithet 'lappaceus' (burr-like). Like most buttercups, all parts contain the irritant glycoside ranunculin.