BUTTERCUP, a name given. to various crowfoots which bear bright yellow, broadly cup-shaped flowers. Among the best known are the tall or meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris), 2 ft. to 3 ft. high, with stiffly erect stems; the creeping buttercup (R. repens), which spreads by runners, and the bulbous buttercup (R. bulbosus), 1 ft. high, with the stem thickened at the base into a bulb. These plants, all natives of Northern Asia and Europe, and abundant in British Isles, have become widely naturalized in North America. Among the conspicuous native American species ire the marsh buttercup (R. septentr+ionalis) and the California buttercup (R. californicus). See CROWFOOT; RANUNCULUS.