Ranunculus acris |
Ranunculus flammula |
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acrid buttercup, bouton d'or, meadow buttercup, renoncule âcre, tall buttercup, tall crowfoot |
creeping buttercup, creeping crowfoot, creeping spearwort, greater creeping spearwort, lesser spearwort, lesser water buttercup, spearwort |
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Roots | never tuberous. |
not thickened basally, glabrous. |
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Stems | erect from short caudex or rhizome, never rooting nodally, hispid, strigose, or glabrous, base not bulbous. |
erect to prostrate, usually rooting nodally, glabrous or sparsely strigose. |
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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. |
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Proximal cauline leaf blades | lanceolate to oblanceolate or filiform, 0.7-6.5 × 0.04-1 cm, base acute to filiform, margins entire or serrulate, apex acute to filiform. |
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Inflorescences | bracts lanceolate to oblanceolate. |
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Flowers | receptacle glabrous; sepals spreading, 4-6(-9) × 2-5 mm, hispid; petals 5, yellow, 8-11(-17) × 7-13 mm. |
receptacle glabrous; sepals 5, spreading or weakly reflexed, 1.5-4 × 1-2 mm, glabrous or appressed-hispid; petals 5-6, 2.5-7 × 1-4 mm; nectary scales glabrous. |
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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. |
globose or hemispheric, 2-4 × 3-4 mm; achenes 1.2-1.6 × 1-1.4 mm, glabrous; beak lanceolate to linear, straight or curved, 0.1-0.6 mm. |
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2n | = 14. |
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Ranunculus acris |
Ranunculus flammula |
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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]
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AK; AZ; CA; CO; CT; ID; MA; ME; MI; MN; MT; ND; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OR; PA; UT; VT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; Eurasia
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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 3 (3 in the flora). In Eurasia, this taxon is usually treated as two closely related species. Ranunculus flammula in the strict sense has relatively stout (0.8-3 mm thick) stems that are erect or ascending from prostrate bases, lanceolate to oblanceolate leaves 3-10 mm broad, sepals 3-4 mm, and petals 5-7 × 3-4 mm. Ranunculus reptans has slender (0.2-1 mm thick) stems that are usually prostrate except for the pedicels, leaves linear or filiform, to 2 mm broad, sepals 1-2 mm, and petals 3-5 × 1-2.5 mm. In North America, this distinction holds up relatively well east of the Great Plains, where plants with the characteristics of R. flammula in the strict sense are found in eastern Canada (Newfoundland and northern Nova Scotia) while plants with the characteristics of R. reptans are widespread. In the western part of the continent, however, the situation is much less clear. Collections from the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains resemble R. reptans in most characters, but they often have broader leaves (up to 5 mm broad). Plants from farther west are very confusing; specimens showing the typical morphology of R. flammula in the strict sense and R. reptans are found over a wide area, but most specimens from this area combine the characteristics of the two taxa in various ways. For this reason, it is not possible to separate these taxa at the species level. Three varieties are usually recognized, but further study will probably alter the varietal classification (see comments below, under R. flammula var. ovalis). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Ranunculaceae > Ranunculus > subg. Ranunculus > sect. Ranunculus | Ranunculaceae > Ranunculus > subg. Ranunculus > sect. Flammula | ||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | R. acris var. latisectus | |||||||||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 554. (1753) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 548. (1753) | ||||||||
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