Part of a four-stamp set showing mountain flora, each stamp features a different flower: a purple pasqueflower, an orange-red wood lily, a bright yellow alpine buttercup and a dark pink Woods’ rose. Shown here is the Alpine buttercup.

An important part of the natural world, wildflower habitats support species such as butterflies, bees, birds and foraging mammals. Wildflowers grow in varied environments, including bogs and swamps, forests and woodlands, alpine meadows, mountain slopes, coastal bluffs and even deserts. Some wildflowers are widely distributed across the United States, while others are specific to just a small area.

Wildflowers, like many garden flowers, can have several common names; they can even share common names with unrelated plants. Botanical names are also frequently in flux as scientists learn more about the characteristics of each plant and reclassify them.

Alpine buttercup (Ranunculus adoneus) is one of more than 330 species of the Ranunculaceae family that bloom in the United States. The flowers appear in the spring in mountain meadows near the edge of melting snows and continue to bloom into summer. The native plant is found in several Western states.