Flora of North America species comparison

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Ranunculus

Ranunculaceae

buttercup, crowfoot, renoncule, water-buttercup

buttercup family, crowfoot family
Habit Herbs, annual or perennial, from tuberous roots, caudices, rhizomes, stolons, or bulbous stem bases. Herbs, sometimes woody or herbaceous climbers or low shrubs, perennial or annual, often rhizomatous.
Stems

unarmed.
Leaves

blade reniform to linear, margins entire, crenate, or toothed.

blade undivided or more commonly divided or compound, base cordate, sometimes truncate or cuneate, margins entire, toothed, or incised;

venation pinnate or palmate.
Inflorescences

terminal or axillary, 2-50-flowered cymes to 25 cm or solitary flowers;

bracts present or absent, small or large and leaflike, not forming involucre.

terminal or axillary, racemes, cymes, umbels, panicles, or spikes, or flowers solitary, flowers pedicellate or sessile.
Flowers

bisexual, radially symmetric;

sepals sometimes persistent in fruit, 3-5(-6), green or sometimes purple, yellow, or white, plane (base saccate in R. ficaria), oblong to elliptic, ovate, or lanceolate, 1-15 mm;

petals 0-22(-150), distinct, yellow, rarely white, red, or green, plane, linear to orbiculate, 1-26 mm;

nectary present, usually covered by scale;

stamens (5-)10-many;

filaments filiform;

staminodes absent between stamens and pistils;

pistils 4-250, simple;

ovule 1 per ovary;

style present or absent.

bisexual, sometimes unisexual, inconspicuous or showy, radially or bilaterally symmetric;

sepaloid bracteoles absent;

perianth hypogynous;

sepals usually imbricate, 3-6(-20), distinct, often petaloid and colored, occasionally spurred;

petals 0-26, distinct (connate in Consolida), plane, cup-shaped, funnel-shaped, or spurred, conspicuous or greatly reduced;

nectary usually present, rarely absent;

stamens 5-many, distinct;

anthers dehiscing longitudinally;

staminodes absent (except in Aquilegia and Clematis);

pistils 1-many;

styles present or absent, often persistent in fruit as beak.
Fruits

achenes, rarely utricles, aggregate, sessile, discoid, lenticular, globose, obovoid, or cylindric, sides sometimes veined;

beak present or absent, terminal, straight or curved, 0-4.5 mm.

achenes, follicles, or rarely utricles, capsules, or berries, often aggregated into globose to cylindric heads.
Seeds

1-many per ovary, never stalked, not arillate;

endosperm abundant;

embryo usually small.
x

= 7, 8.

Ranunculus

Ranunculaceae
Distribution
from USDA
Worldwide except lowland tropics
[BONAP county map]
Worldwide
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species about 300 (76 in the flora).

Most Ranunculus species are poisonous to stock; when abundant, they may be troublesome to ranchers. A few species with acrid juice were formerly used as vesicatories. The genus is badly in need of biosystematic work. Apomixis and interspecific hybridization occur in several Old World groups of buttercups; some of the taxonomic complexity of the New World species probably results from these processes.

Considerable disagreement exists among authors on the proper generic and infrageneric classification of Ranunculus. Most of the subgenera accepted here have been treated as separate genera at one time or another. All recent studies have been based on local or continental floras, however, and classifications proposed for one region may not work for the plants of other regions. Like most North American workers, I have followed the generic and infrageneric classification of L. D. Benson (1948), who gave by far the most thorough and best documented study of the problem. The genus and its subdivisions should be studied on a worldwide basis.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Genera ca. 60, species 1700 (22 genera, 284 species in the flora).

The flowers of many species of Ranunculaceae begin to open long before anthesis, while the floral organs are just partly expanded. Only mature flowers with open anthers should be used for determination of diagnostic characteristics (especially measurements).

The literature is inconsistent about the term for the whorl of organs between sepals and stamens; these may be conspicuous and petaloid, or reduced to stalked nectaries, or intermediate between the two states. They have been called petals, honey-leaves, or (when they are inconspicuous) staminodes or nectaries. We follow M. Tamura (1993) and treat as petals all organs between the sepals and stamens, except in Clematis and Aquilegia where they usually bear rudimentary anthers and clearly represent staminodes.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. All leaves simple and unlobed.
→ 2
1. Some or all leaves simple and lobed, or compound.
→ 9
2. Cauline leaves absent or scalelike; sepals deciduous or persistent.
→ 3
2. Cauline leaves present, well developed; sepals deciduous.
→ 5
3. Petals 5; achene beak 0.1-0.2 mm; plants stoloniferous, without caudices.
Halodes (Ranunculus cymbalaria)
3. Petals 8-18; achene beak 0.8-1.4 mm; plants not stoloniferous, stems erect from short caudices.
→ 4
4. Leaf blades undivided, margins entire or serrulate; sepals persistent in fruit; petals 7-12 mm.
Oxygraphis (Ranunculus kamtschaticus)
4. Leaf blades shallowly lobed, margins crenate; sepals deciduous; petals 2-4 mm
Pseudaphanostemma (Ranunculus hystriculus)
5. Tuberous roots present; flowers yellow; sepals 3.
Ficaria (Ranunculus ficaria)
5. Tuberous roots absent (roots thickened proximally in some 5-sepaled species of sect. Flammula); flowers yellow, white, or pink.
→ 6
6. Achenes 4.2-5.2 mm, achene body prolonged beyond seed as corky distal appendage; sepals 3, 6-10 mm; petals white to pink.
Pallasiantha (Ranunculus pallasii)
6. Achenes 0.8-2.8 mm, achene body not prolonged beyond seed; sepals (3-)4-5, 1.5-12 mm; petals yellow.
→ 7
7. Sepals covered with dense brown pubescence; distal leaves and bracts apically 3-crenate or shallowly 3-lobed, otherwise undivided.
Epirotes (Ranunculus macauleyi)
7. Sepals glabrous or with colorless hairs; distal leaves simple and undivided.
→ 8
8. Achene wall papery, longitudinally ribbed; leaf apex broadly rounded to truncate, margins crenate.
Halodes (Ranunculus cymbalaria)
8. Achene wall thick, not ornamented, smooth (sometimes pubescent); leaf apex acuminate to rounded-obtuse, margins entire or finely toothed.
sect. Flammula
9. Leafy stems creeping and rooting at nodes or floating in water, then rootless.
→ 10
9. Leafy stems erect or if decumbent rooting only at base, never floating.
→ 14
10. Leaves 3-foliolate.
sect. Ranunculus
10. Leaves simple, lobed to filiform-dissected or occasionally undivided.
→ 11
11. Achene body prolonged beyond seed as corky distal appendage; sepals 3, petals 5-11.
→ 12
11. Achene body not prolonged beyond seed; either sepals 5 or sepals 3-4 and petals also 3-4.
→ 13
12. Leaf blade as wide as long, ternately divided to base.
Coptidium (Ranunculus lapponicus)
12. Leaf blade much longer than wide, unlobed or lobed.
Pallasiantha (Ranunculus pallasii)
13. Petals white or white with yellow claws; achenes with strong coarse wrinkles.
subg. Batrachium
13. Petals yellow; achenes smooth (faintly wrinkled in R. sceleratus var. sceleratus).
sect. Hecatonia
14. Petals pure red, or white when immature; fruits winged achenes or utricles.
subg. Crymodes
14. Petals yellow, rarely also with some red pigmentation abaxially, or greenish yellow; fruits achenes, rarely winged.
→ 15
15. Cauline leaves absent or scalelike, tuberous roots absent; leaves sometimes deeply parted or dissected, never compound.
→ 16
15. Cauline leaves present, simple, lobed or dissected, or compound (rarely reduced to scales in R. fascicularis with tuberous roots and 3-5-foliolate leaves).
→ 18
16. Plants villous; sepals 3-6 × 1-2 mm, persistent in fruit; fruit wall firm, smooth, beak much longer than achene body.
Ceratocephala (Ranunculus testiculatus)
16. Plants glabrous; sepals 6-13 × 3-7 mm, deciduous in fruit; fruit wall thin, veined, beak much shorter than achene body.
→ 17
17. Leaves shallowly 5-7-lobed; petals inconspicuous, 2-4 mm.
Pseudaphanostemma (Ranunculus hystriculus)
17. Leaves 3-5-parted; petals showy, 8-12 mm.
Arcteranthis (Ranunculus cooleyae)
18. Style absent, stigma sessile; achene margins thick and corky; emergent aquatic, sometimes also found on very wet soil.
Hecatonia (Ranunculus sceleratus)
18. Style present; achene margins not corky; in various habitats but rarely aquatic.
→ 19
19. Achene wall thin, longitudinally striate; scale of nectary reduced to low ridge, not covering nectary.
Cyrtorhyncha (Ranunculus ranunculinus)
19. Achene wall thick, smooth, papillose, or spiny; scale of nectary well-developed flap or pocket completely covering nectary.
→ 20
20. Achenes thick-lenticular or asymmetrically thick-lenticular to compressed-globose, 1.2-2 times as wide as thick; nectary scale joined with petal on 3 sides, forming pocket enclosing nectary (sometimes with apex free, forming flap shorter than pocket); basal leaves various, unlobed to deeply divided, margins entire to crenate but never at all serrate.
sect. Epirotes
20. Achenes strongly flattened, at least 3-15 times as wide as thick; nectary scale free from petal for at least 1/2 its length, thus forming free scale over nectary (scale sometimes free for less than 1/2 its length in R. recurvatus, with serrate to crenate-serrate leaf margins); basal leaves always deeply lobed or compound (except sometimes in R. marginatus and R. orthorhynchus), margins various.
→ 21
21. Achenes papillose or spiny (sometimes smooth in R. sardous); flowers small, petals 1-6 mm, scarcely longer than sepals, sometimes absent (larger and much longer than sepals in R. sardous).
sect. Echinella
21. Achenes smooth, glabrous or pubescent; flowers small to large, petals always present, 2-22 mm.
sect. Ranunculus
1. Flowers bilaterally symmetric; sepals showy; petals smaller than sepals.
→ 2
1. Flowers radially symmetric; sepals showy or not; petals present or absent, smaller to larger than sepals.
→ 4
2. Upper (adaxial) sepal (hood) saccate or helmet-shaped; petals completely hidden by sepals.
Aconitum
2. Upper (adaxial) sepal spurred; petals at least partly exserted from calyx.
→ 3
3. Perennials; pistils 3(-5); petals 4, distinct.
Delphinium
3. Annuals; pistil 1; petals 2, connate.
Consolida
4. Fruits achenes or utricles; ovule 1 per pistil.
→ 5
4. Fruits follicles, capsules, or berries; ovules 2 or more per pistil (1 of 2 aborting in Xanthorhiza, leaving 1 seed at maturity).
→ 12
5. Sepals spurred; leaves all basal, blade linear or narrowly oblanceolate.
Myosurus
5. Sepals plane; leaves either not all basal, or blade not linear or narrowly oblanceolate.
→ 6
6. Leaves all cauline and opposite; stems ±woody, at least at base.
Clematis
6. Leaves cauline and alternate (rarely opposite), or basal, or plants with basal leaves and opposite or whorled involucral bracts; stems herbaceous.
→ 7
7. Plants with 1 or more pairs (opposite) or whorls of involucral bracts, these leaflike or calyxlike.
→ 8
7. Plants without involucral bracts (inconspicuous, linear-lanceolate involucral bracts in Trautvetteria), cauline leaves if present alternate (rarely a pair of opposite, unlobed leaves in Ranunculus sect. Flammula).
→ 9
8. Achenes with conspicuous veins or ribs on lateral surfaces; style absent.
T. thalictroides
8. Achenes without veins on lateral surfaces; style present.
Anemone
9. Petals absent; inflorescences panicles, racemes, or corymbs (umbels in Thalictrum thalictroides); filaments filiform or dilated distally.
→ 10
9. Petals present (rarely absent in Ranunculus pedatifidus); inflorescences simple or compound cymes or flowers solitary; filaments filiform.
→ 11
10. Leaves simple, blade lobed; flowers bisexual; inflorescences corymbs.
Trautvetteria
10. Leaves compound; flowers unisexual or bisexual; inflorescences panicles, racemes, corymbs, or umbels.
Thalictrum
11. Petals without nectaries; sepals 5(-8).
Adonis
11. Petals with basal nectaries; sepals 3-5(-6).
Ranunculus
12. Leaves dissected into linear, threadlike segments; pistils compound; fruits capsules.
Nigella
12. Leaves not dissected, if parted or compound the segments not linear; pistils simple; fruits aggregates of follicles or solitary or aggregate berries.
→ 13
13. Shrubs; beak of follicle lateral, strongly incurved against abaxial surface of follicle.
Xanthorhiza
13. Herbs; beak of follicle, if present, terminal or nearly so, straight or slightly curved, sometimes hooked at tip.
→ 14
14. Petals prominent, spurred.
Aquilegia
14. Petals if present inconspicuous, plane or funnel-shaped.
→ 15
15. Flowers 12-50, in racemes or racemelike panicles.
→ 16
15. Flowers 1-10, in leafy cymes or solitary.
→ 17
16. Pistils 1-8; fruits follicles, usually aggregate; petals 2-cleft or absent.
Cimicifuga
16. Pistil 1; fruits berries; petals unlobed.
Actaea
17. Leaves simple, blade often lobed 1/2-3/4 its length, margins entire, crenate, or toothed; petals absent.
→ 18
17. Leaves compound or divided to base; petals usually inconspicuous (absent in Enemion).
→ 19
18. Leaf blades unlobed, margins entire, dentate, or crenate; fruits follicles.
Caltha
18. Leaf blades lobed, margins serrate; fruits berries.
Hydrastis
19. Leaves ternately 1-2× compound.
→ 20
19. Leaves palmately or pedately compound or divided.
→ 21
20. Leaves all basal; leaf blade deeply divided, ternately or pinnately 1-2× compound; petals present.
Coptis
20. Leaves basal and cauline; leaf blade ternately 2× compound; petals absent.
Enemion
21. Leaf segments lobed, margins sharply toothed; sepals persistent in fruit.
Helleborus
21. Leaf segments cleft or parted, margins entire or toothed; sepals not persistent in fruit.
→ 22
22. Cauline leaves absent except for whorl of 3 involucral bracts immediately subtending flower; follicles stipitate.
Eranthis
22. Cauline leaves alternate, (0.8-)1 cm or more from flower, involucral whorl absent; follicles sessile.
Trollius
Source FNA vol. 3. Author: Alan T. Whittemore. FNA vol. 3, p. 85. Authors: Alan T. Whittemore, Bruce D. Parfitt.
Parent taxa Ranunculaceae
Subordinate taxa
R. sect. Echinella, R. sect. Epirotes, R. sect. Flammula, R. sect. Hecatonia, R. sect. Ranunculus, R. subg. Batrachium, R. subg. Crymodes
Aconitum, Actaea, Adonis, Anemone, Aquilegia, Caltha, Cimicifuga, Clematis, Consolida, Coptis, Delphinium, Enemion, Eranthis, Helleborus, Hydrastis, Myosurus, Nigella, Ranunculus, Thalictrum, T. thalictroides, Trautvetteria, Trollius, Xanthorhiza
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 548. 175: Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 243. (1754) Jussieu
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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