Ranunculus acris |
Ranunculus aquatilis |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
acrid buttercup, bouton d'or, meadow buttercup, renoncule âcre, tall buttercup, tall crowfoot |
renoncule aquatique, water buttercup, water crowfoot, white water butter cup, white water crowfoot, white water crowsfoot, white western buttercup |
|||||
Roots | never tuberous. |
|||||
Stems | erect from short caudex or rhizome, never rooting nodally, hispid, strigose, or glabrous, base not bulbous. |
glabrous. |
||||
Leaves | laminate and filiform-dissected; laminate leaf blades reniform, 3-parted, 0.4-1.1 × 0.7-2.3 cm, segments obovate or fan-shaped, shallowly cleft, margins crenate; filiform-dissected leaves with stipules gradually tapering upward, connate for their whole length. |
|||||
Basal leaf | 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. |
|||||
Flowers | receptacle glabrous; sepals spreading, 4-6(-9) × 2-5 mm, hispid; petals 5, yellow, 8-11(-17) × 7-13 mm. |
receptacle hispid, rarely glabrous; sepals spreading or reflexed, 2-4 × 1-2 mm, glabrous; petals 5, 4-7 × 1-5 mm; style 0.1-0.8 mm. |
||||
Fruiting pedicels | usually recurved. |
|||||
Heads of achenes | 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. |
hemispheric to ovoid, 2-4 × 2-5 mm; achenes 1-2 × 0.8-1.4 mm, glabrous or hispid; beak persistent, filiform, 0.1-1.2 mm. |
||||
2n | = 14. |
|||||
Ranunculus acris |
Ranunculus aquatilis |
|||||
Phenology | Flowering spring–summer (May–Sep). | |||||
Habitat | Meadows, stream banks, roadsides, and old fields | |||||
Elevation | 0-2300 m (0-7500 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AK; AL; AZ; CA; CT; DC; DE; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NV; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; SPM; South America; Pacific Islands; Greenland; Eurasia; Australia [Largely introduced]
|
AK; AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DE; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; Eurasia
|
||||
Discussion | 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.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Ranunculus aquatilis is very variable. In the past it has often been treated as three or four species and many varieties. These segregate taxa have been based on the size, petiolation and rigidity of the leaves (now known to be primarily under environmental control), petal size and curvature of the fruiting pedicel (both sometimes variable along single stem), and number of achenes per head and length of achene beak (which vary continuously and are not correlated with one another). Unless reliable characters can be found, only two of the taxa recognized in older floras can be maintained. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||
Key |
|
|||||
Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. | ||||
Parent taxa | Ranunculaceae > Ranunculus > subg. Ranunculus > sect. Ranunculus | Ranunculaceae > Ranunculus > subg. Batrachium | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | R. acris var. latisectus | Batrachium aquatile | ||||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 554. (1753) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 556. (1753) | ||||
Web links |
|
|