buttercup family
Ranunculaceae
Ranunculaceae ( rə-NUNG-kyuu-LAY-see-e(y)e; from Latin rānunculus 'little frog', from rāna 'frog'), commonly called the buttercup family, is a large family of flowering plants, whose range is distributed worldwide.
As of February 2026, World Flora Online accepted 53 genera and over 3,700 species. The largest genera are Ranunculus with more than 1,600 species, Delphinium with more than 500, and Clematis with almost 400.
5 branches of this family, most-observed first
Anemones, buttercups, larkspurs and allies
subfamilyRanunculoideae
Columbines and Meadow-Rues
subfamilyThalictroideae
goldthreads and yellowroots
subfamilyCoptidoideae
goldenseal subfamily
subfamilyHydrastidoideae
Japanese wood poppy subfamily
subfamilyGlaucidioideae
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Ranunculaceae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 48231.