Ranunculus multifidusForssk.

buttercupwild buttercup

WFO wfo-0000462812 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ranunculus multifidus, photographed by Andrew Deacon
fig. a Andrew Deacon, CC0 1.0 / 2022-04-03 / obs. 189748480
Ranunculus multifidus, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. b Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173875234
Ranunculus multifidus, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. c Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173090609
Ranunculus multifidus, photographed by Shaun Swanepoel
fig. d Shaun Swanepoel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171928541
Ranunculus multifidus, photographed by Jeremy Gilmore
fig. e Jeremy Gilmore, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 172851668
Ranunculus multifidus, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. f Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 169573895
Ranunculus multifidus, photographed by Di Turner
fig. g Di Turner, CC0 1.0 / obs. 166079341
Ranunculus multifidus, photographed by Di Turner
fig. h Di Turner, CC0 1.0 / obs. 166078234

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 29 botanical countries

Regions where Ranunculus multifidus is native: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Central African Republic, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, Yemen AngolaBotswanaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesCentral African RepublicDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNamibiaNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweSaudi ArabiaYemen
Native distribution of Ranunculus multifidus, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Central African Republic CAF
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Saudi Arabia SAU ASIA-TEMPERATE
Yemen YEM

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 75 in flower of 77 examined

Peak flowering in Oct. Each bar is the share of Ranunculus multifidus 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. 75 of 77 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 8 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.

  • Ranunculus capensis Thunb.
  • Ranunculus madagascariensis Freyn
  • Ranunculus membranaceus Fresen.
  • Ranunculus pubescens Thunb.
  • Ranunculus rutenbergii Freyn
  • Ranunculus striatus Hochst.
  • Ranunculus udus Freyn
  • Stylurus fistulosus Raf.

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.