Ranunculus aquatilis |
Ranunculus canus |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
renoncule aquatique, water buttercup, water crowfoot, white water butter cup, white water crowfoot, white water crowsfoot, white western buttercup |
Hartweg's buttercup, Sacramento Valley buttercup |
|||||||||
Roots | never tuberous. |
|||||||||
Stems | glabrous. |
erect to decumbent, never rooting nodally, hirsute, pilose, or glabrous, base not bulbous. |
||||||||
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 ovate to narrowly ovate in outline, 3-parted or -foliolate, 3.3-9.5 ×3.5-9.4 cm, leaflets or segments 1-3x-lobed, ultimate segments ovate or oblong-ovate to lanceolate, margins toothed, apex acute or obtuse. |
|||||||||
Flowers | 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. |
receptacle glabrous; sepals reflexed 1-2 mm above base, 3-8 × 2-4 mm, hirsute; petals 5-17, yellow, 6-12 × 3-6 mm. |
||||||||
Fruiting pedicels | usually recurved. |
|||||||||
Heads of achenes | 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. |
hemispheric to globose, 6-9 × 7-10 mm; achenes 3.4-4.4 × 2.4-3.6 mm, glabrous or rarely hispid, margin forming narrow rib 0.1-0.2 mm wide; beak persistent, deltate or lance-deltate, curved, 0.2-1.2 mm. |
||||||||
Ranunculus aquatilis |
Ranunculus canus |
|||||||||
Distribution |
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
|
CA
|
||||||||
Discussion | 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.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Ranunculus canus intergrades with R. occidentalis var. occidentalis and R. californicus, and some populations can be difficult to assign to species. The deltate or lance-deltate achene beak of R. canus, however, which is usually 0.8-1.2 mm wide at the base and less than 1.5 times as long as wide, contrasts with the narrower beaks of the other two species, which are usually less than 0.6 mm wide and at least twice as long as wide. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||
Key |
|
|
||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Ranunculaceae > Ranunculus > subg. Batrachium | Ranunculaceae > Ranunculus > subg. Ranunculus > sect. Ranunculus | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Batrachium aquatile | |||||||||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 556. (1753) | Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 294. (1849) | ||||||||
Web links |
|