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.

Common Name: BANEBERRY
Habit: Perennial herb from stout, branched caudex. Stem: 1--few, ascending to erect, branched or not. Leaf: 1--4, generally 1--3-ternate or -pinnate. Inflorescence: raceme, axillary or terminal. Flower: sepals 3--5, petal-like, early-deciduous; petals 4--10, spoon-shaped to obovate, clawed; pistil 1, placentas 2, ovules several. Fruit: berry.
Etymology: (Greek: ancient name, from wet habitat, similarity to Sambucus leaves) Toxicity: Fruit TOXIC to humans.
eFlora Treatment Author: Bruce A. Ford & Dieter H. Wilken