Common Name: BUTTERCUP FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, woody vine [shrub], occasionally aquatic. Leaf: generally basal and cauline, alternate or opposite, simple or compound; petioles at base generally flat, occasionally sheathing or stipule-like. Inflorescence: cyme, raceme, panicle, or flowers 1. Flower: generally bisexual, generally radial; sepals 3--6(20), free, early-deciduous or withering in fruit, generally green; petals 0--many, generally free; stamens generally 5--many, staminodes generally 0; pistils 1--many, ovary superior, chamber 1, style 0--1, generally +- persistent as beak, ovules 1--many. Fruit: achene, follicle, berry, +- utricle in Trautvetteria, in aggregate or not, 1--many-seeded.
Genera In Family: +- 60 genera, 1700 species: worldwide, especially northern temperate, tropical mountains; many ornamental (Adonis, Aquilegia, Clematis, Consolida, Delphinium, Helleborus, Nigella). Toxicity: some highly TOXIC (Aconitum, Actaea, Delphinium, Ranunculus). Note: Taxa of Isopyrum in TJM (1993) moved to Enemion; Kumlienia moved to Ranunculus.
eFlora Treatment Author: Margriet Wetherwax & Dieter H. Wilken, family description, key to genera
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Habit: Perennial herb from rhizomes; roots generally clustered. Stem: generally 1, erect, simple. Leaf: basal and cauline, few, alternate, simple, round to reniform, deeply palmately lobed. Inflorescence: panicle, +- flat-topped, terminal. Flower: sepals 3--7, petal-like; petals 0; stamens 50--100; pistils 10--16, ovule 1, style persistent, +- hooked or coiled. Fruit: +- utricle; wall papery, shiny, veined or ribbed.
Etymology: (E.R. von Trautvetter, Russian botanist, 1809--1889)
eFlora Treatment Author: Bruce D. Parfitt & Dieter H. Wilken
Reference: Parfitt 1997 FNANM 3: 138--139