Biorepository Data Portal

Stems erect or ascending, never rooting nodally, strigose or spreading-strigose, base not bulbous. Roots always both filiform and tuberous on same stem. Basal leaf blades ovate to broadly ovate in outline, 3-5-foliolate, 2.1-4.7 × 1.9-4.5 cm, leaflets undivided or 1×-lobed or -parted, ultimate segments oblanceolate or obovate, margins entire or with few teeth, apex rounded-acute to rounded-obtuse. Flowers: receptacle hispid or glabrous; sepals spreading or sometimes reflexed from base, 5-7 × 2-3 mm, hispid or glabrous; petals 5(-7), yellow, 8-14 × 3-6 mm. Heads of achenes globose or ovoid, 5-9 × 5-8 mm; achenes 2-2.8 × 1.8-2.2 mm, glabrous, margin forming narrow rib 0.1-0.2 mm wide; beak persistent, filiform, straight, 1.2-2.8 mm. 2 n = 32. Flowering winter-spring (Jan-Jun). Grassland or deciduous forest; 0-300 m; Man., Ont; Ala., Ark., Conn., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Nebr., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., Wis. Ranunculus fascicularis is very similar to R . hispidus var. hispidus , and herbarium specimens without underground parts may be difficult to identify. Ranunculus fascicularis grows in drier habitats; segments of its leaves are commonly oblanceolate and blunt, with few or no marginal teeth; and its petals are widest at or below the middle. Ranunculus hispidus var. hispidus is usually larger in all its parts (leaves, flowers, heads of achenes); leaf segments are variable in shape but their apices are normally sharper and their marginal teeth more numerous, and petals are widest above the middle.

Perennial 1-2 dm or at maturity 3 dm tall, erect or ascending, not becoming repent; pubescence mostly appressed; rhizome short, regenerated each year; some roots very slender, others usually becoming thickened in late season and to 5 cm long; lvs mostly basal, the blade ovate in outline, longer than wide, the terminal segment stalked, all segments deeply lobed and the lobes generally incised or coarsely crenate; cauline lvs 1-3, smaller, sessile or nearly so, less divided; fls long-pedicellate; pet 5-7(-10), widest near or below the middle, 8-14 נ3.5-5.5 mm; anthers 1.3-1.8 mm; receptacle ±conic above the broad staminal zone; achenes rotund, the body 2-3.5 mm, sharply margined, but the adjacent lateral nerves not much raised; beak slender, straight or nearly so, 1.5-3 mm; 2n=32. Prairies and dry woods; Mass. to s. Ont. and Minn., s. to N.J., Md., W.Va., Tenn., La., and Tex. Apr., May.

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

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