Ranunculus bulbosus Linnaeus
bulbous buttercup
Europe, Middle East, North Africa; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
The acrid properties of the two common grassland species Ranunculus acris
and R. bulbosus (which are unlikely to have been distinguished from one
another) are shared by most other British Isles members of the genus, with
the result that they featured in folk use almost as widely as lesser spearwort,
R. flammula Linnaeus, for their power to raise blisters and to act as a counter-
irritant for all rheumatic afflictions in the same way as nettles. Records of
that use are specially frequent in the Highlands and Western Isles in the eigh-
teenth century, but that doubtless only reflects the fact that it persisted there
longest—later ones occur scattered across the English and Irish lowlands. All
three species similarly acted as a remedy for toothache and for headaches,
though more rarely and the latter records are wholly Irish.^20 Again, chewing
the leaf, or rubbing the affected portion with one, acted as a strong counter-
irritant.
One or both of the acrid grassland species have also attracted an impres-
sive diversity of other uses. Marginally the most widespread of these has been
as a wart cure but, surprisingly, the British records for that are all from the far
south of England only: Devon^21 Somerset,^22 Sussex^23 and Middlesex.^24 This
cure, however, is a ‘regular’ in herbals back to Pliny, and that distribution
possibly betrays an inheritance solely from the medicines of the books.
Related to that use was presumably the Highland one of applying a buttercup
poultice to a swelling on the sole of the foot.^25 Other ailments for which these
plants have been valued are skin troubles in England (Cornwall,^26 Dorset^27 )
and bleeding from cuts and wounds in Scotland (Berwickshire,^28 the High-
lands^29 ).
In common with that other yellow-flowered herb with an age-old repu-
tation for curing eye troubles, greater celandine (Chelidonium majus), the
creeping buttercup,Ranunculus repens Linnaeus, has been identified as the
species widely renowned in parts of Cornwall as the ‘kenning herb’, from its
use as an ointment for healing the eye ulcers known as ‘kennings’.^30 No doubt
it was carefully picked out because it was known to be non-caustic, unlike its
similar-looking relatives. Surprisingly, though, it was apparently not that but
the species known to its user(s) as ‘meadow crowfoot’ that has been favoured
for inflamed eyes in Norfolk.^31
72 Ranunculus bulbosus