Ranunculus glaberrimus |
Ranunculus glacialis |
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sagebrush buttercup, smooth buttercup |
glacier buttercup |
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Roots | cylindric, 1-3 mm thick. |
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Stems | prostrate or ascending, 4-15 cm, glabrous, each with 1-4 flowers. |
erect or ascending from caudices, not rooting nodally, distally glabrous or brown-pilose, not bulbous-based. |
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Basal leaves | persistent, blades reniform or obovate to very narrowly elliptic, 0.7-5.2 × 1-2 cm, base truncate, obtuse or attenuate, margins entire or with 3 broad, apical crenae, apex rounded to acute. |
blades reniform to broadly triangular in outline, 3-foliolate or deeply 3-parted, 1-4 × 1.6-4.4 cm, leaflets or segments 1-2x-parted, ultimate segments elliptic to oblanceolate or almost linear, margins entire or occasionally with 1-2 teeth, apex rounded to obtuse. |
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Flowers | pedicels glabrous or nearly so; receptacle glabrous; sepals 5-8 × 3-7 mm, abaxially glabrous or sparsely pilose, hairs colorless; petals 5-10, 8-13 × 5-12 mm; nectary scale glabrous or ciliate. |
receptacle glabrous or brown-pilose; sepals spreading, 7-12 × 4-9 mm, brown-pilose; petals initially white, usually becoming red with age, 9-15 × 7-14(-18) mm. |
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Heads of achenes | globose, 7-12(-20) × 6-11(-20) mm; achenes 1.4-2.2 × 1.1-1.8 mm, usually finely pubescent; beak subulate or lance-subulate, straight or curved, 0.4-1 mm. |
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Tuberous | roots absent. |
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Fruiting | heads hemispheric, 5-8 × 7-16 mm; fruit wall smooth, not veined, loose but not inflated, winged along suture, fruits winged achenes; achenes 2.6-3 × 1.4-2 mm, glabrous; beak persistent, lanceolate, 0.8-2.3 mm. |
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Ranunculus glaberrimus |
Ranunculus glacialis |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; SK
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AK; Eurasia |
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Usually only a minority of the ovaries develop, and the fruiting receptacle is completely hidden by aborted ovaries. Populations growing at high elevations (Ranunculus glaberrimus var. ellipticus) and low elevations (var. glaberrimus) are usually well differentiated, but these varieties intergrade at intermediate elevations. The Thompson Indians rubbed the flowers or the whole plant of Ranunculus glaberrimus on arrow points as a poison (D. E. Moerman 1986). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Ranunculaceae > Ranunculus > subg. Ranunculus > sect. Epirotes | Ranunculaceae > Ranunculus > subg. Crymodes | ||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Beckwithia glacialis | |||||||||
Name authority | Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 12. (1829) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 553. (1753) | ||||||||
Web links |
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