Basal leaves
Numerous closely set basal leaves. Basal leaves long-petiolate, the blades cordate-ovate, 3-foliate, 5-8 x 3-6 (-7) cm, leaflets again cleft or parted, leaflet base obtuse to acute, margins dentate, apex rounded to acute. The lateral leaflets very short-stalked to sessile, the terminal leaflet with a stalk 1-2 cm long.
Cauline leaves
Lower cauline leaves long-petiolate, the blades cordate-ovate, 3-foliate, 5-8 x 3-6 (-7) cm, leaflets again cleft or parted, leaflet base obtuse to acute, margins dentate, apex rounded to acute. The median cauline leaves on shorter petioles, deeply three-lobed, lobes deeply toothed. The upper cauline leaves also three-lobed but lobes entire.
Ecology
Found in ditches, wet clearings, roadsides, low fallow fields, floodplains, etc.
Family
RANUNCULACEAE Jussieu (Crowfoot Family or Buttercup Family)
Flowering period
Flowering in spring; March to May.
Flowers
Flowers up to 1.5 cm across, pedicellate; receptacle hispid; sepals 5, ovate, reflexed, 3-4 x 2 mm, sparsely hispid; petals 5, obovate, shiny yellow, 4-5 x 2-3 mm; stamens about 20.
Fruit
Heads of achenes ovoid or short-oblong, 8-9 x 6-7 mm; achenes 30-60 per head, somewhat asymmetrical, nearly orbicular, 2 x 2 mm, faces densely tuberculate, glabrous, margin smooth; beak semicircular, hooked, 0.3 mm.
Habit and stem features
Annual; stems erect or reclining, branched, up to 50 cm tall, hispid or sometimes glabrous. Has somewhat thick, short basal stem; flowering stems usually several from near the base, 3-5 dm tall.
Place of Species Publication
Ranunculus trilobus Desfontaines, Flora Atlantica sive Historia Plantarum, quae in Atlante. 1:437. 1799
References
Clewell, Andre F. 1985. Guide to the Vascular Plants of the Florida Panhandle, University Presses of Florida, Florida State University Press, Tallahassee, Fl.
Gibraltar Ornithological & Natural History Society. 2001. Gibraltar Flora (http://www.gibnet.gi/~gohns/gibralta.htm).
Godfrey, Robert K. and Jean W. Wooten 1981. Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Southeastern United States: Dicotyledons, University of Georgia Press, Athens, Ga.
USDA, NRCS. 2005. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
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.
Wunderlin, Richard P. 1998. Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Fl.
Synonyms
none