Ranunculus sardous
Ranunculus cardiophyllus
hairy buttercup, hairy crowfoot
heart-leaf buttercup, renoncule pédatifide
cylindric, 1.3-2 mm thick.
nearly erect, hispid, base not bulbous.
erect, 11-53 cm, pilose or glabrous, each with 1-5 flowers.
persistent, blades ovate or elliptic, undivided or innermost 3-5-parted, 2.2-6.9 × 1.8-4.5 cm, base cordate to broadly obtuse, margins crenate with more than 5 crenae, apex rounded to broadly acute.
pedicellate;
receptacle pilose;
sepals 5, reflexed, 3-8 × 1.5-3 mm, pilose;
petals 5, 7-10 × 4-8 mm.
pedicels pilose;
receptacle canescent;
sepals 5-8 × 3-7 mm, abaxially pilose, hairs colorless;
petals (0-)5-10, 6-13 × 4-13 mm;
nectary scale ciliate or sometimes glabrous.
globose or ovoid, 5-8 × 6-7 mm;
achenes 15-35 per head, 2-3 × 2-3 mm, faces sparsely papillate or sometimes smooth, glabrous, margin smooth;
beak oblong to deltate, curved, 0.4-0.7 mm.
ovoid or cylindric, 5-16 × 5-9 mm;
achenes 1.8-2.2 × 1.5-2 mm, finely canescent;
beak subulate, curved or straight, 0.6-1.2 mm.
and lower cauline leaf blades ovate to cordate, 3-foliolate, 2-6 × 2-6 cm, leaflets again parted, leaflet base truncate to acute, margins crenate-dentate to crenate-lobulate, apex rounded to obtuse.
= 32.
Ranunculus sardous
Ranunculus cardiophyllus
Ranunculus sardous was collected in New Brunswick and Ontario in the 1800s, but it apparently has not persisted in those provinces.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Ranunculus cardiophyllus is quite variable. Through most of its range, leaves always have rounded marginal crenae and cordate or truncate bases, stems are often densely pilose (but may be sparsely pilose or glabrous), and achene beaks are curved. In plants from Arizona and New Mexico, however, leaves may have obtuse marginal crenae or broadly obtuse bases, stems are never densely pilose, and achene beaks are sometimes straight. Forms showing some or all of these charactersistics are often separated as R. cardiophyllus var. subsagittatus. The characteristics are poorly correlated, however, and taxonomic recognition is not warranted.
Most specimens of Ranunculus cardiophyllus have all of the basal leaves unlobed, but plants with the innermost basal leaf 3-5-lobed are common. A few specimens, mostly from the northern part of its range, have all of the basal leaves 5-parted or -divided. Those plants approach R. pedatifidus in their morphology, and R. cardiophyllus has sometimes been considered a variety of that species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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