the popular name for certain herbaceous plants, predominantly with yellow flowers. Plants of the genus Ranunculus, primarily the species Ranunculus acris, are most often called buttercups. R. acris is a perennial, measuring 20–80 cm. tall, with a hairy stem and generally digitipartite leaves. The flowers are golden-yellow, on long peduncles; they bloom at the beginning of the summer. R. acris grows in the temperate zone of Eurasia; in the USSR it is found in meadows, forest glades, brushwood, and forests in the European USSR, Western Siberia, and Middle Asia. It is poisonous: the juice produces severe burns on the skin and causes tearing and sharp pain in the eyes. The buttercup is a meadow weed, rarely eaten by cattle.