All three common species of buttercup are now in flower now on my patch, making them easy to tell apart. Bulbous buttercup Ranunculus bulbosus is the easiest – just look at the sepals below the cup of petals. In this species the sepals bend back and touch the flower stalk (top picture). That leaves creeping buttercup Ranunculus repens and meadow buttercup Ranunculus acris, whose green sepals both support the cup of petals. For them, just take a close look at the flower stalk. In creeping buttercup (middle picture) it has ridges and furrows, whilst in meadow buttercup (bottom picture) it’s smooth and more or less round in cross section.
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