Hairy Buttercup

Ranunculus sardous was collected in New Brunswick and Ontario in the 1800s, but it apparently has not persisted in those provinces.

Stems nearly erect, hispid, base not bulbous. Basal and lower cauline leaf blades ovate to cordate, 3-foliolate, 2-6 × 2-6 cm, leaflets again parted, leaflet base truncate to acute, margins crenate-dentate to crenate-lobulate, apex rounded to obtuse. Flowers pedicellate; receptacle pilose; sepals 5, reflexed, 3-8 × 1.5-3 mm, pilose; petals 5, 7-10 × 4-8 mm. Heads of achenes globose or ovoid, 5-8 × 6-7 mm; achenes 15-35 per head, 2-3 × 2-3 mm, faces sparsely papillate or sometimes smooth, glabrous, margin smooth; beak oblong to deltate, curved, 0.4-0.7 mm.

Herbs annual. Stems ca. 40 cm, strigose, branched. Basal leaves ca. 6; petiole 6--7 cm; blade mostly ternate, ovate or broadly ovate, 1.8--2.6 × 1.6--2.9 cm, papery; central leaflet subpentagonal, petiolule 1--8 mm, base broadly cuneate, margin 3-partite, incised-lobulate; lateral leaflets smaller, subsessile or shortly petiolulate, oblique, unequally 3-cleft, simple, 3-lobed, to nearly 3-sect. Stem leaves long or shortly petiolate, ternate or 3-sect. Compound monochasium 2--5-flowered. Flowers ca. 1.8 cm in diam. Pedicel 1.5--4.5 cm, strigose. Receptacle pubescent. Sepals 5, narrowly ovate, ca. 6 mm, abaxially hispid. Petals 5, obovate, ca. 10 × 7 mm, nectary pit covered by a scale, apex rounded. Stamens numerous. Aggregate fruit ovoid, ca. 7 × 6 mm. Achene complanate, orbicular-obovate, ca. 2.5 × 2 mm, glabrous, verrucose along margin, narrowly marginate; style persistent, ca. 0.5 mm. Fl. May.

introduced; B.C.; Ala., Ark., Calif., Fla., Ga., Ill., Kans., Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Okla., Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.; native to Europe; Pacific Islands; Australia.

Flowering late winter-summer (Mar-Aug).

Roadsides, fields, open woods; 0-200m.

Recently naturalized in waste places. Shanghai [native to Europe].

Ranunculus parvulus Linnaeus