Ranunculus glacialis |
Ranunculus pusillus |
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glacier buttercup |
low buttercup, low spearwort, weak buttercup |
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Roots | not thickened basally, glabrous. |
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Stems | erect or ascending from caudices, not rooting nodally, distally glabrous or brown-pilose, not bulbous-based. |
erect or ascending, rooting at most proximal nodes, glabrous. |
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Basal leaf 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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Proximal cauline leaf blades | ovate or lanceolate, 1.2-4.2 × 0.5-1.2 cm, base acute to truncate, margins entire or denticulate, apex acuminate to rounded. |
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Inflorescences | bracts linear to lanceolate or oblanceolate. |
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Flowers | 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. |
receptacle glabrous; sepals 4-5, spreading or reflexed from base, 1.5-3 × 1-1.5 mm, glabrous or sparsely hirsute; petals 1-3, 1.5-2 × 0.5-1 mm; nectary scales glabrous. |
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Heads of achenes | hemispheric to cylindric, 2-8 × 2-3 mm; achenes 1-1.2 × 0.6-0.8 mm, ± tuberculate, glabrous; beak absent or nearly so, to 0.1 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 glacialis |
Ranunculus pusillus |
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Phenology | Flowering spring (Apr–Jun). | |||||
Habitat | Ditches, ponds, and swamps | |||||
Elevation | 0-300 m (0-1000 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AK; Eurasia |
AL; AR; CA; DC; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
In most specimens of Ranunculus pusillus, the heads of achenes are hemispheric to short-ovate and only 2-3 mm. Occasional plants with cylindric heads of achenes 4-6 mm from the Gulf Coast states have been called R. pusillus var. angustifolius. (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 | ||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Beckwithia glacialis | R. oblongifolius, R. pusillus var. angustifolius, R. tener | ||||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 553. (1753) | Poiret: in J. Lamarck et al., Encycl. 6: 99. (1804) | ||||
Web links |