By having its nourishment thriftily stored up underground all winter, the BULBOUS BUTTERCUP (R.bulbosus) is able to steal a march on its fibrous-rooted sister that must accumulate hers all spring; consequently it is first to flower, coming in early May, and lasting through June.It is a low and generally more hairy plant, but closely resembling the tall buttercup in most respects, and, like it, a naturalized European immigrant now thoroughly at home in fields and roadsides in most sections of the United States and Canada.
Much less common is the CREEPING BUTTERCUP (R.repens), which spreads by runners until it forms large patches in fields and roadsides, chiefly in the Eastern States.Its leaves, which are sometimes blotched, are divided into three parts, the terminal one, often all three, stalked.May-July.
First to bloom in the vicinity of New York (from March to May) is the HISPID BUTTERCUP (R.hispidus), densely hairy when young.The leaves, which are pinnately divided into from three to five leaflets, cleft or lobed, chiefly arise on long petioles from a cluster of thickened fibrous roots.The flower may be only half an inch or an inch and a half across.It is found in dry woods and thickets throughout the eastern half of the United States;whereas the much smaller flowered BRISTLY BUTTERCUP (R.
Pennsylvanicus) shows a preference for low-lying meadows and wet, open ground through a wider, more westerly range.Its stout, hollow, leafy stem, beset with stiff hairs, discourages the tongues of grazing animals.June-August.
Commonest of the early buttercups is the TUFTED BUTTERCUP (R.
fascicularis), a little plant seldom a foot high, found in the woods and on rocky hillsides from Texas and Manitoba, east to the Atlantic, flowering in April or May.The long-stalked leaves are divided into from three to five parts; the bright yellow flowers, with rather narrow, distant petals, measure about an inch across.
They open sparingly, usually only one or two at a time on each plant, to favor pollination from another one.
Scattered patches of the SWAMP or MARSH BUTTERCUP (P.
septentrionalis) brighten low, rich meadows also with their-large satiny yellow flowers, whose place in the botany even the untrained eye knows at sight.The smooth, spreading plant sometimes takes root at the joints of its branches and sends forth runners, but the stems mostly ascend.The large lower mottled leaves are raised well out of the wet, or above the grass, on long petioles.They have three divisions, each lobed and cleft.From Georgia and Kentucky far northward this buttercup blooms from April to July, opening only a few flowers at a time-a method which may make it less showy, but more certain to secure cross-pollination between distinct plants.
The YELLOW WATER BUTTERCUP or CROWFOOT (R.deiphinifolius; R.
multifidus of Gray) found blooming in ponds through the summer months, certainly justifies the family name derived from rana = a frog.Many other members grow in marshes, it is true, but this ranunculus lives after the manner of its namesake, sometimes immersed, sometimes stranded on the muddy shore.Two types of leaves occur on the same stem.Their waving filaments, which make the immersed leaves look fringy, take every advantage of what little carbonic acid gas is dissolved under the surface.
Moreover, they are better adapted to withstand the water's pressure and possible currents than solid blades would be.The floating leaves which loll upon the surface to take advantage of the air and sunlight, expand three, four, or five divisions, variously lobed.On this plant we see one set of leaves perfectly adapted to immersion, and another set to aerial existence.The stem, which may measure several feet in length, roots at the joints when it can.Range from the Mississippi and Ontario eastward to the Atlantic Ocean.
The WHITE WATER-CROWFOOT (Batrachium trichophyllum; Ranunculus aquatilis of Gray) has its fine thread-like leaves entirely submerged; but the flowers, like a whale, as the old conundrum put it, come to the surface to blow.The latter are small, white, or only yellow at the base, where each petal bears a spot or little pit that serves as a pathfinder to the flies.When the water rises unusually high, the blossoms never open, but remain submerged, and fertilize themselves.Seen underwater, the delicate leaves, which are little more than forked hairs, spread abroad in dainty patterns; lifted cut of the water these flaccid filaments utterly collapse.In ponds and shallow, slow streams, this common plant flowers from June to September almost throughout the Union, the British Possessions north of us, and in Europe and Asia.
The WATER PLANTAIN SPEARWORT (K.obtusiusculus; R.a/isrnaefoiius of Gray) flecks the marshes from June to August with its small golden flowers, which the merest novice knows must be kin to the buttercup.The smooth, hollow stem, especially thick at the base, likes to root from the lower joints.A peculiarity of the lance-shaped or oblong lance-shaped leaves is that the lower ones have petioles so broad where they clasp the stem that they appear to be long blades suddenly contracted just above their base.
BARBERRY; PEPPERIDGE-BUSH
(Berberis vulgaris) Barberry family Flowers - Yellow, small, odor disagreeable, 6-parted, borne in drooping, many-flowered racemes from the leaf axils along arching twigs.Stem: A much branched, smooth, gray shrub, to 8 ft.tall, armed with sharp spines.Leaves: From the 3-pronged spines (thorns); oval or obovate, bristly edged.Fruit: Oblong, scarlet, acid berries.
Preferred Habitat - Thickets; roadsides; dry or gravelly soil.
Flowering Season - May-June.
Distribution - Naturalized in New England and Middle States; less common in Canada and the West.Europe and Asia.