Low annual or perennial herbs from fibrous roots or thickened rootstocks or bulbs often with a basal rosette of leaves.
Stem leaves alternate, simple, lobed or divided.
Flowers usually axillary and solitary with five green sepals and five glossy yellow petals which give the plant its common name, buttercup. Fruit a head of achenes. This plant contains an irritant oil called protoanemonin. This oil is not a highly toxic substance and is present in various species of buttercup in differing amounts. In general, the flowering plant contains more toxin than the younger plant.