Ranunculus sceleratus
Ranunculus auricomus
blister buttercup, celery-leaf buttercup, celery-leaf crowfoot, cursed buttercup, cursed crowfoot, cursed crowsfoot, renoncule scélérate
Greenland buttercup
filiform, 0.2-0.6 mm thick.
erect, glabrous, rooting at base, only very rarely rooting at proximal nodes.
erect or ascending, 12-30 cm, glabrous, each with 1-4 flowers.
basal and cauline, basal and proximal cauline leaf blades reniform to semicircular in outline, 3-lobed or -parted, 1-5 × 1.6-6.8 cm, base truncate to cordate, segments usually again lobed or parted, sometimes undivided, margins crenate or crenate-lobulate, apex rounded or occasionally 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 pubescent or glabrous;
sepals 3-5, reflexed from or near base, 2-5 × 1-3 mm, glabrous or sparsely hirsute;
petals 3-5, 2-5 × 1-3 mm;
nectary on petal surface, scale poorly developed and forming crescent-shaped or circular ridge surrounding but not covering nectary;
style absent.
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.
ellipsoid or cylindric heads, 5-13 × 3-7 mm;
achenes 1-1.2 × 0.8-1 mm, glabrous;
beak deltate, usually straight, 0.1 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.
= 16.
Ranunculus sceleratus
Ranunculus auricomus
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
Ranunculus sceleratus varieties were used by the Thompson Indians as a poison for their arrow points (D. E. Moerman 1986).
(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.)
1. Faces of achene with fine transverse wrinkles; leaf blades lobed or parted, segments undivided or lobed, margins crenate. | var. sceleratus |
1. Faces of achene smooth; leaf blades always parted (often deeply so), segments lobed or parted, margins deeply crenate or lobulate. | var. multifidus |
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