Ranunculus L.

Terrestrial and aquatic herbs, annual or perennial; rootstock tuberous or horizontal; roots often fibrous; stems erect, decumbent or prostrate or creeping, stoloniferous. Leaves radical and cauline, whorled or alternate on stems, often ternately lobed or dissected, sometimes into capillary segments (in aquatic forms), rarely entire, often with membranous stipular auricles. Flowers actinomorphic, solitary or few in corymbose Panicles, white or yellow. Sepals 3 - 5, green or petaloid, often caducous. Petals (honey leaves) as many as sepals or more, usually 5, each with a nectariferous pit at base. Stamens 4-many. Carpels 4-many, superior, free; style short; ovule 1, ascending. Fruit a head or spike of achenes, smooth, tubercled or spinous, compressed or inflated, apiculate or beaked.

Cosmopolitan, mostly in temperate regions and on cold tropical mountains; ca 400 species, 33 in India.

Literature. COOK, C.D.K. (1966) A monographic study of Ranunculus, subgenus Batrachium (DC.) A. Gray. Mitt. Staatss. Munchen 6: 47 - 237. MEIKLE, R. D. (1959) The Batrachian Ranunculi of the Orient. Notes R. Bot. Gard. Edinb. 23: 11 - 21.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Aquatic herbs; leaves submerged and much dissected into capillary lobes (subg. Batrachium)

2

b. Terrestrial herbs, a few aquatic but with aerial laminate leaves

5

2a. Flowers yellow

10. Ranunculus flavidus

b. Flowers white

3

3a. Nectar-pit elongated

28. Ranunculus sphaerospermus

b. Nectar-pit lunate

4

4a. Achenes 60 - 90, ca 1 mm long

23. Ranunculus rionii

b. Achenes 20 - 40, 1.5 - 2 mm long

31. Ranunculus trichophyllus

5a. Herbs annual

6

b. Herbs perennial

11

6a. Achenes emarginate, smooth, not tuberculate or spinous, in cylindrical heads

26. Ranunculus scleratus

b. Achenes marginate, tubercled or spinous, in globose heads

7

7a. Achenes tubercled all over the surface

8

b. Achenes tubercled or hooked along borders only

10

8a. Flowers 1.5 - 1.8 cm across; sepals sparsely setulose

17. Ranunculus muricatus

b. FIowers less than 1.5 cm across; sepals glabrous

9

9a. Sepals shorter than petals, cuneate at base

4. Ranunculus bikramii

b. Sepals as long as petals, rounded or subcordate at base

32. Ranunculus trilobatus

10a. Redical leaves simple

2. Ranunculus arvensis

b. Redical leaves 3-partite

25. Ranunculus sardosus

11a. Leaves undivided or rarely lobed

12

b. Leaves divided or prominently lobed

14

12a. Decumbent herbs

15. Ranunculus lobatus

b. Erect herbs

13

13a. Achenes flat, pitted; flowers large, ca 3 cm wide

14. Ranunculus lingua

b. Achenes inflated, not pitted; flowers less than 1.5 cm wide

21. Ranunculus pulchellus

14a. Aquatic herbs

18. Ranunculus natans

b. Terrestrial herbs

15

15a. Achenes tubercled

16

b. Achenes not tubercled

17

16a. Leaves less than 1 cm wide, crenate; sepals nearly equalling petals

9. Ranuneulus ficariifolius

b. Leaves 3 - 4 cm wide; sepals much shorter than petals

33. Ranunculus wallichianus

17a. Achenes with intramarginal rib, strongly flattened

18

b. Achenes not margined, turgid

21

18a. Achenes dotted

19

b. Achenes not dotted

20

19a. Stems procumbent; lobes of leaves scarcely segmented

7. Ranunculus diffusus

b. Stems erect; lobes of leaves deeply divided

30. Ranunculus subpinnatus

20a. Receptacle of fruit pilose

6. Ranunculus cantoniensis

b. Receptacle of fruit glabrous

13. Ranunculus laetus

21a. Stems creeping, stoloniferous

22

b. Stems erect or decumbent

24

22a. Nectary scales forked or circular and surrounding the nectary pits; receptacles hirsute

12. Ranunculus hyperboreus

b. Nectary scales cup-shaped, laterally connate to the ventral sides of the petal lamina; receptacles glabrous

23

23a. Flowers densely covered with reddish-brown hairs on outside, 1.5 - 2.5 cm diam.

24. Ranunculus rufosepalus

b. Flowers not covered with hairs, less than 1 cm in diam.

20. Ranunculus pegaeus

24a. Rootstocks slender or small, not fibrous

25

b. Rootstocks tuberous or densely fibrous

28

25a. Leaves flabellate

8. Ranunculus felixii

b. Leaves not flabellate

26

26a. Sepals shaggy

27. Ranunculus sikkimensis

b. Sepals silky

27

27a. Herbs, 12 - 20 cm high, flaccid

1. Ranunculus adoxifolius

b. Herbs, 3 - 10 cm high, forming small mats

5. Ranunculus brotherusii

28a. Carpels glabrous

29

b. Carpels sparingly hairy to densely pubescent

30

29a. Basal leaves rotund

16. Ranunculus munronianus

b. Basal leaves linear

29. Ranunculus stewartii

30a. Radical leaves linear, deeply cut, latiniate

3. Ranunculus aucheri

b. Radical leaves broad, rotund or reniform or palmatipartite

31

31a. Lobes of radical leaves lanceolate

19. Ranunculus palmatifidus

b. Lobes of radical leaves coarsely toothed or crenate

32

32a. Stems many-flowered, rarely 1-flowered in some alpine forms

11. Ranunculus hirtellus

b. Stems 1-flowered

22. Ranunculus reniformis

List of Lower Taxa