Ranunculus fascicularis
Ranunculus abortivus
early buttercup, early crowfoot, prairie buttercup, tuft buttercup
kidney-leaf buttercup, kidney-leaf crowfoot, little-leaf buttercup, small-flower buttercup, small-flower crowfoot
always both filiform and tuberous on same stem.
filiform, sometimes enlarged basally, 0.5-1.5 mm thick.
erect or ascending, never rooting nodally, strigose or spreading-strigose, base not bulbous.
erect or nearly erect, 10-60 cm, glabrous, each with 3-50 flowers.
blades ovate to broadly ovate in outline, 3-5-foliolate, 2.1-4.7 × 1.9-4.5 cm, leaflets undivided or 1x-lobed or -parted, ultimate segments oblanceolate or obovate, margins entire or with few teeth, apex rounded-acute to rounded-obtuse.
persistent, blades reniform or orbiculate, undivided or sometimes innermost 3-parted or -foliate, 1.4-4.2 × 2-5.2 cm, base shallowly to deeply cordate, margins crenulate to crenate-lobulate, apex rounded to rounded-obtuse.
receptacle hispid or glabrous;
sepals spreading or sometimes reflexed from base, 5-7 × 2-3 mm, hispid or glabrous;
petals 5(-7), yellow, 8-14 × 3-6 mm.
pedicels glabrous or nearly so;
receptacle sparsely to very sparsely pilose;
sepals 2.5-4 × 1-2 mm, abaxially glabrous;
petals 5, 1.5-3.5 × 1-2 mm;
nectary scale glabrous.
globose or ovoid, 5-9 × 5-8 mm;
achenes 2-2.8 × 1.8-2.2 mm, glabrous, margin forming narrow rib 0.1-0.2 mm wide;
beak persistent, filiform, straight, 1.2-2.8 mm.
ovoid, 3-6 × 2.5-5 mm;
achenes 1.4-1.6 × 1-1.5 mm, glabrous;
beak subulate, curved, 0.1-0.2 mm.
= 32.
= 16.
Ranunculus fascicularis
Ranunculus abortivus
Ranunculus fascicularis is very similar to R. hispidus var. hispidus, and herbarium specimens without underground parts may be difficult to identify. Ranunculus fascicularis grows in drier habitats; segments of its leaves are commonly oblanceolate and blunt, with few or no marginal teeth; and its petals are widest at or below the middle. Ranunculus hispidus var. hispidus is usually larger in all its parts (leaves, flowers, heads of achenes); leaf segments are variable in shape but their apices are normally sharper and their marginal teeth more numerous, and petals are widest above the middle.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Three varieties of Ranunculus abortivus are sometimes recognized. Plants from New England and the northern Appalachians often have thick stems and orbiculate leaves with narrow, deep basal sinuses; this form has been called R. abortivus var. eucyclus. Plants from southeastern Virginia may have the upper bracts merely lobed rather than deeply divided as is usual in R. sect. Epirotes; those have been called R. arbortivus var. indivisus.
Native American tribes have used Ranunculus abortivus medicinally for a variety of purposes (D. E. Moerman 1986).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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