Ranunculus acris
Ranunculus abortivus
acrid buttercup, bouton d'or, meadow buttercup, renoncule âcre, tall buttercup, tall crowfoot
kidney-leaf buttercup, kidney-leaf crowfoot, little-leaf buttercup, small-flower buttercup, small-flower crowfoot
never tuberous.
filiform, sometimes enlarged basally, 0.5-1.5 mm thick.
erect from short caudex or rhizome, never rooting nodally, hispid, strigose, or glabrous, base not bulbous.
erect or nearly erect, 10-60 cm, glabrous, each with 3-50 flowers.
blades pentagonal in outline, deeply 3-5-parted, 1.8-5.2 × 2.7-9.8 cm, segments 1-2x-lobed or -parted, ultimate segments narrowly elliptic or oblong to lanceolate, margins toothed or lobulate, apex acute to rounded.
persistent, blades reniform or orbiculate, undivided or sometimes innermost 3-parted or -foliate, 1.4-4.2 × 2-5.2 cm, base shallowly to deeply cordate, margins crenulate to crenate-lobulate, apex rounded to rounded-obtuse.
receptacle glabrous;
sepals spreading, 4-6(-9) × 2-5 mm, hispid;
petals 5, yellow, 8-11(-17) × 7-13 mm.
pedicels glabrous or nearly so;
receptacle sparsely to very sparsely pilose;
sepals 2.5-4 × 1-2 mm, abaxially glabrous;
petals 5, 1.5-3.5 × 1-2 mm;
nectary scale glabrous.
globose, 5-7(-10) mm wide;
achenes 2-3 × 1.8-2.4 mm, glabrous, margin forming narrow rib 0.1-0.2 mm wide;
beak persistent, deltate, usually with tip short or long, straight or curved, subulate, 0.2-1 mm.
ovoid, 3-6 × 2.5-5 mm;
achenes 1.4-1.6 × 1-1.5 mm, glabrous;
beak subulate, curved, 0.1-0.2 mm.
= 14.
= 16.
Ranunculus acris
Ranunculus abortivus
Ranunculus acris is variable in form and division of leaves, size of achene beak, and form of indument on the proximal stem. Most North American plants are weedy and have poorly differentiated caudices; these forms probably were introduced from Eurasia. Rhizomatous plants with large flowers (parenthetic measurements above) found in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and in Greenland are probably native. Aleutian populations of this form have been called R. acris var. frigidus Regel or R. grandis Honda var. austrokurilensis (Tatewaki) H. Hara. Both names were originally applied to Asiatic plants, and their applicability to American specimens is open to question.
Some Native American tribes used Ranunculus acris as an analgesic, a dermatological or oral aid, an antidiarrheal, antihermorrhagic, and a sedative (D. E. Moerman 1986).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Three varieties of Ranunculus abortivus are sometimes recognized. Plants from New England and the northern Appalachians often have thick stems and orbiculate leaves with narrow, deep basal sinuses; this form has been called R. abortivus var. eucyclus. Plants from southeastern Virginia may have the upper bracts merely lobed rather than deeply divided as is usual in R. sect. Epirotes; those have been called R. arbortivus var. indivisus.
Native American tribes have used Ranunculus abortivus medicinally for a variety of purposes (D. E. Moerman 1986).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
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OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
Go Botany, 
IL Wildflowers, 
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MD Biodiversity, 
MI Flora, 
MN Wildflowers, 
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WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
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- Wikipedia
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- Local floras: BC, WA
- Local Web sites: Flora NW, Go Botany, IL Wildflowers, KS Wildflowers,
LA Plants, MD Biodiversity, MI Flora, MN Wildflowers, MO Plants, PNW Herbaria - WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- USDA Plants Database
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
