An early flowering buttercup species, one of four buttercup species found in Bainton and Ashton. Flowers from mid-March to May. Easily distinguished from other buttercup species by the down-turned sepals.
Prefers lighter soils so is mainly found in Bainton churchyard and the roadside verges and green spaces which surround the church. The first flowers open with the primroses and then take over after the primroses fade. Bulbous Buttercups need unimproved dry grassland. With the loss of traditionally managed meadows and pastures their range is becoming increasingly restricted to churchyards and road verges – so our local churchyard and roadside populations are important.
Other buttercup species found in Bainton and Ashton:
Goldilocks Buttercup an indicator of ancient meadows and woodland. Found on the County Wildlife Site verges on Bainton Green Road between the Ufford Road junction and the Ashton sign.
Later flowerin
g Meadow Buttercup, forms carpets across some of the meadows in Ashton.
Creeping Buttercup likes damper places and garden lawns! The only one to spread by runners!
The name ‘Buttercup’ only came into use in the middle of the 18th century, and John Clare tends to stick to ‘crowflower’, ‘crowfoot’ and ‘kingcup’ for what we now call buttercups. Whereas he uses the name Buttercup for Lesser Celandines. In ‘Pleasures of Spring’, he writes of ‘the taller buttercup… which proudly leaves the grass to meet the sun’. Now that sounds like a Bulbous Buttercup!