Species
+

Ranunculus repens L.

Buutergäärs, Cotel, Creeping Buttercup, Creeping buttercup (EN); Ranunculo del prado (ES)

Climate known 52 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Ranunculus repens, the creeping buttercup, is a flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to Europe, Asia and northwestern Africa. It is also called creeping crowfoot and sitfast.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ranunculus repens”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Ranunculus

Ranunculus is a large genus of about 1750 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ranunculus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Ranunculaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Føroyar +72
Wild records
489 in range· 202 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
877mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 84 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–33DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 877 mm a year, wettest October at 84 mm, driest April at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Ranunculastrum repens (L.) Fourr.; Ranunculastrum reptabundum Fourr.; Ranunculus belvisii DC.; Ranunculus caleyanus G.Don; Ranunculus clintonii L.C.Beck and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (632 mm of 877 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 14.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 877 mm a year, wettest October at 84 mm, driest April at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

877 mm a year at the habitat, 632 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 84 mm, driest April at 49 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 711 mm to 1270 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -4.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.8 °C, the absolute minimum -11.1 °C, about 62 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.7 °C in February (across the envelope cells -1.2 °C to 2.9 °C), warmest day 21.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 6 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 877 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 359 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -11.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 25.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost25.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-11.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 4–33RH 60–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 359 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 4–76 / 5–810 / 8–1013 / 11–1417 / 14–1819 / 17–2022 / 19–2321 / 18–2218 / 16–1914 / 12–159 / 8–106 / 5–8
Night °C1 / -1–31 / -1–33 / 1–45 / 4–69 / 7–911 / 10–1214 / 12–1514 / 12–1511 / 10–138 / 7–104 / 3–62 / -0–4
Rain mm77 / 58–12161 / 45–9069 / 51–10049 / 44–8266 / 54–9172 / 55–8979 / 52–9276 / 58–10277 / 62–10584 / 70–13384 / 67–12683 / 64–129
DLI5 / 4–810 / 9–1317 / 16–2027 / 25–2932 / 32–3533 / 33–3732 / 31–3627 / 26–3019 / 18–2212 / 11–146 / 5–84 / 3–6
RH %68 / 66–6965 / 64–6763 / 62–6561 / 59–6360 / 59–6361 / 59–6361 / 59–6461 / 60–6463 / 62–6465 / 64–6668 / 66–6969 / 66–70

Each figure is the median across the 359 grid cells holding the 488 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 733:3570 (53.325, -1.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -11.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 359 distinct grid cells holding the 488 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 733:3570 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 53.50_-1.250, lapse-corrected +83 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 168 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Føroyar, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Altay, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Cyprus, Iran, Turkey, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Pakistan· introduced: Svalbard, Iraq, East Himalaya, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New Zealand North, New Caledonia, Hawaii, Aleutian Is., Alaska, Greenland, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Costa Rica, Panama, Bermuda, Jamaica, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile South, Amsterdam-St.Paul Is., Crozet Is., Falkland Is., Kerguelen, South Georgia
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker52.26, 4.52 · in the densest population, 407 records (83% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 489 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 202 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 570 km away. 237 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 489 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ranunculus repensRanunculus repensRanunculus repensRanunculus repensRanunculus repensRanunculus repensRanunculus repensRanunculus repens

Photographs: (c) Gavin Slater, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ranunculus repens, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A Comparative Study of Germination Responses to Diurnally-Fluctuating Temperatures
K. Thompson, J. P. Grime (1983) · Journal of Applied Ecology
Management of Roadside Vegetation: The Long-Term Effects of Cutting
Terry Parr, J. M. Way (1988) · Journal of Applied Ecology
The Integration of Neighbourhood Effects by Clonal Genets in Solidago Canadensis
David C. Hartnett, F. A. Bazzaz (1985) · Journal of Ecology
Rapid transfer of photosynthetic carbon through the plant-soil system in differently managed species-rich grasslands
Gerlinde B. De Deyn, Helen Quirk, Simon Oakley, Nick Ostle (2011) · Biogeosciences
CLONAL VARIATION IN POPULATIONS OF RANUNCULUS REPENS
Ian Soane, Andrew R. Watkinson (1979) · New Phytologist
Restoration of grazing management and its effect on vegetation in an upland grassland
V. Pavlů, Michal Hejcman, Lenka Pavlů, J. Gaisler (2007) · Applied Vegetation Science

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Ranunculus 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.