Buttercups are up

Today I decided that I would start my blog about the natural world. While returning from my daughters horse riding lesson I was doing my usual botanizing while driving and I noticed the first Buttercups along a south facing cut on the side of the road. In the interior of the Pacific Northwest of the United States the buttercup is called ‘Coyote’s eyes’ — iceyéeyenm sílu in Nez Perce and spilyaynmí áčaš in Sahaptin. In the legend Coyote was tossing his eyes up in the air and catching them again when Eagle snatched them. Unable to see, Coyote made eyes from the buttercup.There are several hundred species of the buttercup family in the world. The family name Ranunculaceae is from the latin word for frog which is "rana". This is in reference to the preference of wet habitat by many of the species. The common name buttercup is thought to be from the yellow,waxy surface of the petals reminding one of a cup of butter. Most references refer to the buttercups as being poisonous when eaten as the leaves contain an acrid juice only to be used externally as a poultice. I was able to find numerous uses of this plant in my ethnobotany books but I have no direct experience using buttercups. We had snow again yesterday, just a couple inches of wet March snow--already melted for the most part.