Naples buttercup

Ranunculus neapolitanus, the Naples buttercup, is a perennial herb of the Ranunculaceae native to the Mediterranean region, particularly Italy, the Balkans, and adjacent areas of southeastern Europe and North Africa. Plants are 20 to 60 cm tall, with erect, branched, hairy stems arising from a short fibrous-rooted rootstock. The basal leaves are long-petioled, deeply three-parted or palmately divided into broad, toothed segments, while the stem leaves are smaller and more deeply dissected. Bright glossy yellow, five-petaled flowers about 1.5 to 2.5 cm across are borne on long pedicels in loose terminal cymes; the sepals are spreading rather than reflexed. The fruit is an aggregate of small flattened achenes with a short hooked beak. It grows in meadows, olive groves, fallow fields, and roadsides, flowering in spring.