Kamchatka Buttercup

If Oxygraphis is included within Ranunculus, the correct name for this species is R. kamchaticus because the epithet “glacialis” was already used in 1753 for the alpine European species Ranunculus glacialis Linnaeus.

Basal leaves 5--10, glabrous; petiole 1--8 cm, narrowly vaginate at base; leaf blade ovate, broadly ovate, obovate, or elliptic, 0.5--3 × 0.5--3 cm, base broadly cuneate, margin entire, or rarely crenate, apex obtuse. Scapes 1--8, more than 2 cm, elongating to 10 cm in fruit, glabrous. Flowers solitary, 1.5--3 cm in diam. Sepals 5, orbicular-obovate or elliptic-ovate, 3--5 mm, subleathery, glabrous, persistent, accrescent after anthesis to 10--18 mm. Petals 12--19, oblanceolate or oblong, 7--12 × 1.5--3 mm. Anthers oblong, 0.6--1 mm. Aggregate fruit subglobose, ca. 1 cm in diam.; achenes narrowly obovate-rhombic, 2.2--3 × 1.2--1.8 mm, glabrous. Persistent style 1.5--2 mm. Fl. Apr--Sep, fr. Jun--Oct. 2n = 16*.

S Gansu, Qinghai, S Shaanxi (Taibai Shan), W Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia (Siberia)].

Alpine meadows, often on level wet stony areas, grassy slopes, scrub, by rivers; 2700--5000 m.

Ficaria glacialis Fischer ex de Candolle, Prodr. 1: 305. 1817; Caltha glacialis (Fischer ex de Candolle) Sprengel; C. kamchatica (de Candolle) Sprengel; Ranunculus kamchaticus de Candolle.