Ranunculus arvensisL.

corn buttercup

WFO wfo-0000461176 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ranunculus arvensis, photographed by Gabriel Mayrhofer
fig. a Gabriel Mayrhofer, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-20 / obs. 202222824
Ranunculus arvensis, photographed by Bastien Alegot
fig. b Bastien Alegot, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 136272620
Ranunculus arvensis, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. c Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 128429546
Ranunculus arvensis, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. d Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 127776715
Ranunculus arvensis, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. e Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 127773850
Ranunculus arvensis, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. f Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 118600610
Ranunculus arvensis, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. g Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 117877002
Ranunculus arvensis, photographed by Vladimír Fuka
fig. h Vladimír Fuka, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 167962368

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 51 botanical countries

Regions where Ranunculus arvensis is native: Algeria, Canary Is., Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, East Himalaya, India, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Netherlands, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AlgeriaEgyptMoroccoTunisiaAfghanistanCyprusEast Aegean Is.IranIraqKazakhstanKirgizstanLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPalestineTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanEast HimalayaIndiaPakistanWest HimalayaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKritiKrymNetherlandsNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSpainSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine Canary Is.BalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Ranunculus arvensis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baleares BAL
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
France FRA
Germany GER
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Cyprus CYP
East Aegean Is. EAI
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Canary Is. CNY
Egypt EGY
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
East Himalaya EHM ASIA-TROPICAL
India IND
Pakistan PAK
West Himalaya WHM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 148 in flower of 177 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Ranunculus arvensis observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 148 of 177 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 13 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Cynomorbium heterophyllum Opiz
  • Hericinia arvensis (L.) Fourr.
  • Pachyloma arvense (L.) Spach
  • Pfundia arvensis (L.) Opiz
  • Ranunculus arvensis var. arvensis
  • Ranunculus arvensis var. tuberculatus DC.
  • Ranunculus curvirostratus Bertol.
  • Ranunculus echinatissimus Blatt.
  • Ranunculus echinatus Crantz
  • Ranunculus fernandezii Blatt.
  • Ranunculus reticulatus Regel & Schmitz ex Seub.
  • Ranunculus segetalis Kit. ex Uechtr.
  • Ranunculus tuberculatus Kit. ex Hornem.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.