Ranunculus aquatilis
Ranunculus glaberrimus
renoncule aquatique, water buttercup, water crowfoot, white water butter cup, white water crowfoot, white water crowsfoot, white western buttercup
sagebrush buttercup, smooth buttercup
cylindric, 1-3 mm thick.
glabrous.
prostrate or ascending, 4-15 cm, glabrous, each with 1-4 flowers.
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.
persistent, blades reniform or obovate to very narrowly elliptic, 0.7-5.2 × 1-2 cm, base truncate, obtuse or attenuate, margins entire or with 3 broad, apical crenae, apex rounded to acute.
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.
pedicels glabrous or nearly so;
receptacle glabrous;
sepals 5-8 × 3-7 mm, abaxially glabrous or sparsely pilose, hairs colorless;
petals 5-10, 8-13 × 5-12 mm;
nectary scale glabrous or ciliate.
usually recurved.
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.
globose, 7-12(-20) × 6-11(-20) mm;
achenes 1.4-2.2 × 1.1-1.8 mm, usually finely pubescent;
beak subulate or lance-subulate, straight or curved, 0.4-1 mm.
Ranunculus aquatilis
Ranunculus glaberrimus
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).
Usually only a minority of the ovaries develop, and the fruiting receptacle is completely hidden by aborted ovaries. Populations growing at high elevations (Ranunculus glaberrimus var. ellipticus) and low elevations (var. glaberrimus) are usually well differentiated, but these varieties intergrade at intermediate elevations.
The Thompson Indians rubbed the flowers or the whole plant of Ranunculus glaberrimus on arrow points as a poison (D. E. Moerman 1986).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Leaves of 2 types: laminate and filiform-dissected; w North America. | var. aquatilis |
1. Leaves all filiform-dissected; widespread. | var. diffusus |
1. Basal leaf blades ovate to obovate, usually shallowly lobed; bracts 3-lobed, lobes equal in size; 400–2000 m. | var. glaberrimus |
1. Basal leaf blades elliptic to oblanceolate, usually undivided; bracts 3-lobed, middle lobe much larger; 1200–3600 m. | var. ellipticus |
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
Go Botany, 
IL Wildflowers, 
KS Wildflowers, 
MD Biodiversity, 
MI Flora, 
MN Wildflowers, 
MO Plants, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
- Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA
- Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog.
- WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- USDA Plants Database
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
