In spring the Bulbous Buttercup is found everywhere, filling the meadows
with its sunshiny flowers.
Each flower has five glossy yellow petals which do not lie flat open as
in the Celandine, but form a cup, a yellow cup or Buttercup.
At the base of each petal you find a small honey pouch, which the bees
love to visit.
When the flower is still in bud, the yellow petals are almost covered by
five pale-green hairy sepals. You can see only the yellow tips peeping
out. But when the flower opens, these hairy green sepals fold back close
round the stalk.
In the centre of the flower is a thick cluster of yellow-headed stamens
with a knot of green seed-vessels in the middle.
The stalk on which the flower grows is slightly hairy, and has a narrow
groove on one side.
The root is shaped like a small turnip, and has a great many white
threads growing out of it.
The leaves of this Buttercup are dark green, with soft hairs all over
them. They are shaped very irregularly, and are deeply cut up all round
the edges.