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Ranunculus muricatus habit image, fruits and flowers

3-lobed basal leaf

Cauline leaf base

Flower showing 5 petals, 5 stamens, 10-20 pistils below

Individual petal

Achenes with flowers in background (in field picture)

Globose arrangement of achenes (close up view)

Individual achenes detached from globose cluster; note spines on faces of achene (lateral and dorsal view)

Basal leaves

Petioles 4-15 cm, sheathing bases 1-2 cm long, blades simple, broadly cordate to reniform or semicircular, undivided to 3-lobed, 2-5 cm long, 2-6.5 cm broad, margins coarsely crenate, bases cordate to truncate, apices rounded, glabrous.

Cauline leaves

Lower leaves alternate and similar to basal ones; upper leaves and inflorescence bracts generally reduced in size and more deeply lobed, lobes often narrower.

Ecology

In lawns, open fields, along roadsides, ditches, sandy marshes, about ponds, and around streams; wet soils and often in shallow water.

Family

RANUNCULACEAE Jussieu (Crowfoot Family or Buttercup Family)

Flowering period

January through May.

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Flowers

Pedicillate, pedicels 5-20 mm in flower; sepals 5, greenish, reflexed, 4-7 x 2-3 mm , sparsely bristle; corolla of 5 petals, yellow, obovate, 4-8 x 2-4.5 mm; stamens numerous; nectary scale glabrous.

Fruit

Achenes 10 to 20 in a globose cluster, 13-16 x 13-16 mm, achenes 4-5.5 mm long, obovoid, faces but not margins covered with long, stout spines, margin smooth; beak lanceolate, essentially straight, 2-2.5 mm.

Habit and stem features

Annual; cespitose, stems reclining or erect, elongating in fruit, not rooting at nodes, glabrous or sparsely pilose, 2-5 dm. long.

Place of Species Publication

Species Plantarum 1: 555. 1753.

References

  1. Correll, Donovan S. and Marshall C. Johnson. 1970. Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas. vol. 6, Texas Research Foundation. Renner, TX, 645.
  2. LouisianaState University Herbarium. 2005. (www.herbarium.lsu.edu). A257 Life Sciences Annex Building, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-1705 USA.
  3. Radford, Albert. E., Harry E. Ahles, and C. Ritchie Bell. 1968. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. The University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 463.
  4. Thomas, R. Dale and Charles M. Allen. 1998. Atlas of the Vascular Flora of Louisiana. vol. 3: Dicotyledons Fabaceae - Zygophyllaceae. Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and Natural Heritage Program. 127-128.
  5. USDA, NRCS. 2004. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov).National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
  6. Whittemore, Alan T. and Bruce D. Parfitt. 1997. Ranunculaceae in vol.3. Flora of North America Committee, eds. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 1993+, 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. 

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Synonyms

None