Low, creeping plant, with spreading stems that take root at nodes.  Leaves dark green, usually mottled, with three, toothed and lobed leaflets 1-1/2 inches long.  Flower yellow, with five very shiny petals.  Fruit a cluster of green, beaked capsules. Blooms in the spring.

Alien weed, occasional in the Park in sunny, wet places, especially near the entrance and along Connelly's Run.

Buttercups are a confusing bunch to tell apart, but the combination of creeping habit and wet habitat is distinctive.  Swamp buttercup (Ranunculus septentrionalis) also shares these characteristics, but it has larger leaflets, up to 4 inches long, that are not mottled.