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Ranunculus

Ranunculus
Family: Ranunculaceae
Ranunculus image
Max Licher
  • FNA
  • Gleason & Cronquist
  • Resources
Alan T. Whittemore in Flora of North America (vol. 3)
Herbs , annual or perennial, from tuberous roots, caudices, rhizomes, stolons, or bulbous stem bases. Leaves basal, cauline, or both, simple, variously lobed or parted, or compound, all petiolate or distal leaves sessile; cauline leaves alternate (rarely a distal pair opposite in Ranunculus sect. Flammula ). Leaf blade reniform to linear, margins entire, crenate, or toothed. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, 2-50-flowered cymes to 25 cm or solitary flowers; bracts present or absent, small or large and leaflike, not forming involucre. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; sepals sometimes persistent in fruit, 3-5(-6), green or sometimes purple, yellow, or white, plane (base saccate in R . ficaria ), oblong to elliptic, ovate, or lanceolate, 1-15 mm; petals 0-22(-150), distinct, yellow, rarely white, red, or green, plane, linear to orbiculate, 1-26 mm; nectary present, usually covered by scale; stamens (5-)10-many; filaments filiform; staminodes absent between stamens and pistils; pistils 4-250, simple; ovule 1 per ovary; style present or absent. Fruits achenes, rarely utricles, aggregate, sessile, discoid, lenticular, globose, obovoid, or cylindric, sides sometimes veined; beak present or absent, terminal, straight or curved, 0-4.5 mm. x = 7, 8.

Most Ranunculus species are poisonous to stock; when abundant, they may be troublesome to ranchers. A few species with acrid juice were formerly used as vesicatories. The genus is badly in need of biosystematic work. Apomixis and interspecific hybridization occur in several Old World groups of buttercups; some of the taxonomic complexity of the New World species probably results from these processes.

Considerable disagreement exists among authors on the proper generic and infrageneric classification of Ranunculus . Most of the subgenera accepted here have been treated as separate genera at one time or another. All recent studies have been based on local or continental floras, however, and classifications proposed for one region may not work for the plants of other regions. Like most North American workers, I have followed the generic and infrageneric classification of L. D. Benson (1948), who gave by far the most thorough and best documented study of the problem. The genus and its subdivisions should be studied on a worldwide basis.

Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada
Fls regular; sep green or yellowish, 3, 4, or more commonly 5, rarely more; pet mostly 5, sometimes fewer or more, each with a nectariferous pit or scale on the upper side at the base; stamens mostly numerous, rarely as few as 5; pistils numerous in a globose, ovoid, or cylindric head; ovule ordinarily 1, erect or ascending; fr an achene; annual or perennial herbs with alternate, entire to much dissected lvs and yellow, white, or rarely red fls; juice acrid, poisonous. (Batrachium, Ceratocephalus, Ficaria) 250+, ±cosmop.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Species within checklist: Stanislaus National Forest Springs || << 1 - 50 taxa >>
Ranunculus aberdaricus
Media
not available
Map not
Available
Ranunculus abortivus
Media resource of Ranunculus abortivus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus abyssinicus
Media
not available
Map not
Available
Ranunculus acaulis
Media resource of Ranunculus acaulis
Map not
Available
Ranunculus acer
Media resource of Ranunculus acer
Map not
Available
Ranunculus aconitifolius
Media resource of Ranunculus aconitifolius
Map not
Available
Ranunculus acrifolius
Media resource of Ranunculus acrifolius
Map not
Available
Ranunculus acriformis
Media resource of Ranunculus acriformis
Map not
Available
Ranunculus acris
Media resource of Ranunculus acris
Map not
Available
Ranunculus adoneus
Media resource of Ranunculus adoneus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus aduncus
Media resource of Ranunculus aduncus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus aestivalis
Media resource of Ranunculus aestivalis
Map not
Available
Ranunculus albertii
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not available
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Available
Ranunculus alceus
Media resource of Ranunculus alceus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus alismifolius
Media resource of Ranunculus alismifolius
Map not
Available
Ranunculus allegheniensis
Media resource of Ranunculus allegheniensis
Map not
Available
Ranunculus allenii
Media resource of Ranunculus allenii
Map not
Available
Ranunculus alnetorum
Media resource of Ranunculus alnetorum
Map not
Available
Ranunculus alpestris
Media resource of Ranunculus alpestris
Map not
Available
Ranunculus alveolatus
Media resource of Ranunculus alveolatus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus amansii
Media resource of Ranunculus amansii
Map not
Available
Ranunculus ambigens
Media resource of Ranunculus ambigens
Map not
Available
Ranunculus amellus
Media resource of Ranunculus amellus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus amerophyllus
Media resource of Ranunculus amerophyllus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus amoenus
Media resource of Ranunculus amoenus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus amphitrichus
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not available
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Available
Ranunculus amplexicaulis
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not available
Map not
Available
Ranunculus andersonii
Media resource of Ranunculus andersonii
Map not
Available
Ranunculus anemoneus
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not available
Map not
Available
Ranunculus angustifolius
Media resource of Ranunculus angustifolius
Map not
Available
Ranunculus apetalus
Media resource of Ranunculus apetalus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus aquatilis
Media resource of Ranunculus aquatilis
Map not
Available
Ranunculus aragazii
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not available
Map not
Available
Ranunculus arizonicus
Media resource of Ranunculus arizonicus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus arvensis
Media resource of Ranunculus arvensis
Map not
Available
Ranunculus asiaticus
Media resource of Ranunculus asiaticus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus atlanticus
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not available
Map not
Available
Ranunculus aucheri
Media resource of Ranunculus aucheri
Map not
Available
Ranunculus aurasiacus
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not available
Map not
Available
Ranunculus auricomus
Media resource of Ranunculus auricomus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus austinae
Media resource of Ranunculus austinae
Map not
Available
Ranunculus austro-oreganus
Media resource of Ranunculus austro-oreganus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus austrooreganus
Media resource of Ranunculus austrooreganus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus bangii
Media resource of Ranunculus bangii
Map not
Available
Ranunculus basalticus
Media resource of Ranunculus basalticus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus batrachioides
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not available
Map not
Available
Ranunculus bellus
Media resource of Ranunculus bellus
Map not
Available
Ranunculus bequaertii
Media
not available
Map not
Available
Ranunculus bloomeri
Media resource of Ranunculus bloomeri
Map not
Available
Ranunculus bonariensis
Media resource of Ranunculus bonariensis
Map not
Available
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