Ranunculus laetus Wallich ex D. Don in Royle, Illus. Bot. Himal. 53. 1834; Hook. f. & Thomson in Fl. Brit. India 1: 19. 1972.

Herbs, perennial; stems erect, much-branched, hairy or subglabrous; radical leaves 7 - 10 cm across, covered with softly appressed hairs; lamina 3-partite or dissected into narrow oblong sharply 2 - 5-toothed lobes; lobes long and narrow; segments spreading only at maturity. Flowers ca 3 cm wide, yellow. Sepals ca 6 x 4 mm, hairy. Petals 8 - 12 x 7 - 10 mm. Achenes on globose heads, smooth, flattened, dotted when young, cuneate at base, dark at centre, thin and paler along margins; style persistent, somewhat straight; receptacle glabrous.

Fl. & Fr. July - Sept.

Distrib. India: Himalayas, temperate and subalpine regions in damp fields and ditches, also at low altitude in Orissa, 1500-3500 m. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Orissa.

Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China (Tibet), Central Asia and Russia.

Notes. Paul (in Geobios 2: 27. 1975) reports the species from Galesar in Balasore District of Orissa at about 1500 m.

Banerjee & Mukherjee (in Castanea 37: 290 - 293. 1972) reported floral variations in respect of receptacle and in number of carpels. According to them, these anomalies in reduction of the number of carpels (4 to 5) and flattening of receptacle of R. laetus indicate resemblance to Winteraceae and Degeneriaceae.