Biorepository Data Portal

Stems floating or prostrate, glabrous, rooting at proximal nodes. Leaves: basal leaves seldom present, cauline leaf blades semicircular to reniform, 1-6×-lobed, parted, or dissected 1.2-7.3 × 1.9-10.8 cm, base truncate or cordate, segment margins entire or crenate, apex rounded to filiform. Flowers: receptacle sparsely hispid; sepals 5, spreading or weakly reflexed, 5-7 × 3-6 mm, glabrous; petals 5-6(-14), 7-12 × 5-9 mm; nectary scale variable, crescent-shaped, funnel-shaped, or flaplike; style 0.8-1.2 mm. Heads of achenes ovoid, 8-10 × 7-8 mm; achenes 1.8-2.2 × 1.6-2.2 mm, glabrous; beak lanceolate, straight, 1-1.8 mm. 2 n = 32. Flowering late spring-summer (May-Aug). Shallow water or drying mud; 0-1500 m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Ont., Que.; Ala., Ark., Calif., Conn., Del., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., Wis., Wyo. The Fox tribes used Ranunculus flabellaris as a cold remedy and a respiratory aid (D. E. Moerman 1986).

Submersed lvs ternately decompound with linear segments 1-2 mm wide; emersed lvs (when present) broadly reniform, 3-parted, the segments 3-cleft, the division in turn 3-lobed; fls on long, stout peduncles; sep 4-8 mm; pet 6-14 mm; achenes plump, 1.3-2.5 mm, the sides rugose, the margin corky-thickened around the base and the ventral side below the middle; beak 0.7-1.5 mm; 2n=32. Quiet water and muddy shores, seldom wholly emersed; Me. to B.C., s. to Va., Ky., Ind., Ill., and La. Apr.-June. (R. delphinifolius)

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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