Ranunculus fascicularis
Ranunculus aquatilis
early buttercup, early crowfoot, prairie buttercup, tuft buttercup
renoncule aquatique, water buttercup, water crowfoot, white water butter cup, white water crowfoot, white water crowsfoot, white western buttercup
always both filiform and tuberous on same stem.
erect or ascending, never rooting nodally, strigose or spreading-strigose, base not bulbous.
glabrous.
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.
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.
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.
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.
usually recurved.
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.
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.
= 32.
Ranunculus fascicularis
Ranunculus aquatilis
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.)
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.)
1. Leaves of 2 types: laminate and filiform-dissected; w North America. | var. aquatilis |
1. Leaves all filiform-dissected; widespread. | var. diffusus |
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