Ranunculus auricomus
Ranunculus alismifolius
Greenland buttercup
common water plantain buttercup, kidney-leaf buttercup, plantain-leaf buttercup, water-plantain buttercup
filiform, 0.2-0.6 mm thick.
slender or fusiform-thickened basally, glabrous.
erect or ascending, 12-30 cm, glabrous, each with 1-4 flowers.
erect or ascending, not rooting nodally, glabrous or hirsute.
basal leaf blades with base acute;
proximal cauline leaf blades lanceolate, ovate, or elliptic, 1.8-14.1 × 0.7-2.9 cm, base acuminate to rounded, margins entire or serrulate, apex obtuse to acuminate.
persistent, blades reniform, 3-parted, 1.2-2.8 × 1.6-4.6 cm, segments again lobed or parted, base cordate, margins toothed, apices of segments rounded in outline.
bracts lanceolate.
pedicels appressed-pubescent;
receptacle finely canescent;
sepals 4-7 × 2.5-4 mm, abaxially sparsely pilose, hairs colorless;
petals 5, 6-10(-15) × 5-9 mm;
nectary scale glabrous.
receptacle glabrous;
sepals 5, spreading or reflexed from base, 2-6 × 1-4 mm, glabrous or hirsute;
petals 5-12, 5-14 × 2-8 mm;
nectary scales glabrous.
globose to short-ovoid, 5-8 × 5-6 mm;
achenes 2-2.2 × 1.8-2 mm, glabrous or sparsely and finely canescent distally;
beak lanceolate, weakly to strongly curved, 1.2-2 mm.
hemispheric to globose, 3-7 × 4-8 mm;
achenes 1.6-2.8 × 1.2-2 mm, glabrous or rarely hispid;
beak lance-subulate, straight or weakly curved, 0.4-1.2 mm.
= 16.
Ranunculus auricomus
Ranunculus alismifolius
Ranunculus auricomus is predominantly apomictic, with irregular meiosis. Different European races may show a variety of characteristics not found in Greenland material (pilose stems, undivided, crenate-dentate leaves, densely canescent achenes, and glabrous receptacles). T. W. Böcher et al. (1968) recognized three distinct races from Greenland, distinguished by minor differences in stature and branching of the plants, width of cauline leaf segments, and indument of achenes. Those races, which were evidently based on very few collections, were named as subspecies by L. Fagerström and G. Kvist (1983). More ample material collected during the 1980s does not support the Fagerström and Kvist classification. Except for stature and branching, which both depend on the general vigor of the plants, these characteristics are poorly correlated with one another and with geographic place of collection. Cauline leaf segments sometimes vary in width within a single collection, and achenes of the Ymer Island collection that they referred to R. auricomus subsp. glabratus are sparsely canescent, not glabrous as stated. These observations, together with the uniformity of indument, leaf shape, and receptacle and achene morphology in the Greenland populations, suggest that they are best considered a single race within the variable apomictic complex comprising R. auricomus in the broad sense.
T. G. Tutin and J. R. Akeroyd (1993) treated Ranunculus auricomus var. glabratus as a synonym of R. affinis (= R. pedatifidus var. affinis; see above). The characteristics in that key and description (leaves palmately 3-5-lobed, achenes in globose heads) do not match American material of R. pedatifidus var. affinis.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Varieties 6 (6 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Petals 7–12 on most flowers, 2–3 mm broad. | var. montanus |
1. Petals 4–6(–8), 2–8 mm broad. | → 2 |
2. Stems 3.5–8 mm thick; leaf margins serrulate. | var. alismifolius |
2. Stems 1–3 mm thick; leaf margins entire. | → 3 |
3. Leaf blades ovate or elliptic. | var. alismellus |
3. Leaf blades broadly to narrowly lanceolate. | → 4 |
4. Petals 10–14 mm; California and Nevada. | var. lemmonii |
4. Petals 5–8 mm; widespread. | → 5 |
5. Roots fusiform-thickened proximally; stems and petioles glabrous or pubescent. | var. davisii |
5. Roots not or scarcely fusiform-thickened proximally; stems and petioles glabrous. | var. hartwegii |
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
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USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
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