Ranunculus aquatilis
Ranunculus inamoenus
renoncule aquatique, water buttercup, water crowfoot, white water butter cup, white water crowfoot, white water crowsfoot, white western buttercup
graceful buttercup, unlovely buttercup
slender, 0.6-1.2 mm thick.
glabrous.
erect, 5-33 cm, pilose or glabrous, each with 3-7 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 ovate, obovate or orbiculate, rarely reniform, undivided or innermost with 2 clefts or partings near apex, 1-3.7 × 1.1-3.5 cm, base acute to rounded, margins entire, apex rounded.
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 appressed-pubescent;
receptacle pilose or glabrous;
sepals 3-5 × 2-3 mm, abaxially pilose, hairs colorless;
petals 5, 4-9 × 2-5 mm;
nectary scale glabrous.
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.
cylindric, 7-17 × 5-8 mm;
achenes 1.5-2 × 1.3-1.8 mm, canescent or glabrous;
beak subulate, straight or hooked, 0.4-2 mm.
Ranunculus aquatilis
Ranunculus inamoenus
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.)
The Navaho-Ramah considered Ranunculus inamoenus to be an effective hunting medicine, used to protect hunters from their prey (D. E. Moerman 1986).
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(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. Sepals 3–5 mm; beaks of achenes 0.4–0.9 mm. | var. inamoenus |
1. Sepals 5–7 mm; beaks of achenes 1.4–2 mm. | var. subaffinis |
- 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
