Ranunculus fascicularis
Ranunculus auricomus
early buttercup, early crowfoot, prairie buttercup, tuft buttercup
Greenland buttercup
always both filiform and tuberous on same stem.
filiform, 0.2-0.6 mm thick.
erect or ascending, never rooting nodally, strigose or spreading-strigose, base not bulbous.
erect or ascending, 12-30 cm, glabrous, each with 1-4 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, 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
= 32.
= 16.
Ranunculus fascicularis
Ranunculus auricomus
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.)
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.)
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