Buttercup. Colours match Branches of Kowhai Design.
The Mount Cook buttercup (Ranunculus lyallii) is one of New Zealand's most well known alpine plants. It is the world's largest buttercup. It can grow over a metre tall with leaves larger than the size of your hand. Some leaves have been recorded as big as 40cm across. It grows in sub-alpine to alpine herbfields in the South Island mountains from Marlborough to Stewart Island from 700m to 1500m in altitude. It is well adapted to grow in infertile soils and it favours stream banks and damp locations in scrub and grasslands. Due to its ornamental flowers, the Mount Cook buttercup has also been cultivated.