Ranunculus nivalis

Ranunculus nivalis, the snow buttercup, is a small alpine and arctic perennial herb in the Ranunculaceae, occurring in moist, peaty alpine meadows, snow flushes, and tundra across northern Eurasia, Greenland, Canada, and Alaska. Plants reach only 5 to 25 cm tall, arising from a short, thick, branched rhizome. The basal leaves are long-petiolate, reniform to orbicular, 1 to 3 cm wide, three-lobed and crenate-toothed, with a thick, somewhat fleshy texture; cauline leaves are deeply divided into linear segments. Stems are erect, sparsely covered with conspicuous, long, dark brown to blackish hairs, particularly on the upper portion and calyx. A solitary terminal flower is borne, 1.5 to 2.5 cm across, with five bright yellow, glossy petals and a calyx of five hairy, often blackish sepals that contrast strikingly with the petals. The fruit is a head of small, glabrous, beaked achenes. Like other Ranunculus, the fresh tissue contains the acrid glycoside ranunculin, which yields the vesicant protoanemonin on injury.