Buttercups

This year has been an incredible year for buttercups. On our way up to Donegal this past June Bank holiday, we were in awe of the countless fields littered with this lovely yellow flower, throughout all the counties that we passed.  Not one county escaped its creeping stem that can spread out over a few square metres and produce new plants.  No wonder it's such a successful flower.   

The type that grows in meadows is called meadow buttercup and according to John Feehan in the wild flowers of Offaly, "it develops from a vertical rootstock, growing to a metre high, well able to compete with the grasses that generally dominate this kind of habitat"  So that's why we saw so much of it in the fields!

Above is a photo of buttercups in our garden.  They really added lovely texture and colour to the grass this year, so much so, that we didn't want to cut the grass until we were forced to!

Does any of you remember putting a buttercup under the chin to find out whether you liked butter or not?