The buttercup is not just species but an entire genus composed of several species. Named for their bright yellow flowers, these plants often grow low to the floor and in large numbers. These characteristics, along with others both physical and genetic, assist scientists and horticulturalists determine how buttercups are categorized with respect to other members of the plant realm.
Kingdom
The classification of the buttercup begins, on top, with the kingdom Plantae. Buttercups share this realm with all other plants like conifers, redwoods, magnolias, roses, ferns and moss.
Subkingdom
Buttercups belong to the subkingdom Tracheobionta with all other vascular plants. This is the point where all species of buttercup diverge from moss and liverworts, which have no internal vascular system to allow them to grow taller than several centimeters. Buttercups feature a vascular system that transfers water in their origins to the tallest parts of the plant.
Superdivision
Spermatophyta, plants that develop from seed, is the superdivision which buttercups belong to. This group contains tomatoes and oak trees but doesn’t contain ferns, which make from smaller seed-like packets called spores.
Manager
Separating from plants like pine trees, as well as other, more primitive non-flowering plants, the buttercup goes in the division Magnoliophyta, along with all other flowering plants. In this division, the yellow blossom created by the buttercup is linked to the white chrysanthemum and the cherry blossom.
Class
The class Dicotyledon ensures that buttercups make two seed leaves when they germinate, instead of just one. In this group, buttercups diverge from monocotyledons like magnolias.
Subclass
Magnoliidae is the subclass to which buttercups belong, even though the reasons require extreme visual study. The Magnoliidae subclass are linked because they share common traits like unfused carpels and stamens that place themselves along the middle of each petal.
Order
Buttercups belong to the order Ranunculales, which they discuss with only a few families of plants including barberries and moonseeds. Buttercups belong here, in part, since they feature soft, rather than woody stems, and create more than two stamens in their blossom.
Family
These plants belong to the family Ranunculaceae that’s also known as the buttercup family. While consisting mainly of buttercups, the Ranunculaceae family also has similar flowers like marigolds, monkshood and columbines.
Genus
Approximately 93 species belong to the genus Ranunculus L. These species vary in size, shape and indigenous place but all are buttercups and all feature distinguishing characteristics, like the yellow, cup shaped blossom.
Species
Among the various species of buttercups, many are named according to their growing habits or according to their native land. The early buttercup (Ranunculus ficaria) for example, blooms earlier than other species, while the California buttercup (Ranunculus californicus) stems from California.