USGS Home
Contact USGS
Search USGS

Low Spearwort (Ranunculus pusillus)

• Family: Buttercup (Ranunculaceae)
• Flowering: May-June.
• Field Marks: This is the only Ranunculus with all the leaves unlobed and with 1-3 tiny petals shorter than the sepals.
• Habitat: Roadside ditches, swamps, wet woods.
• Habit: Annual herb with fibrous roots.
• Stems: Erect or sprawling, smooth or slightly hairy, sometimes branched, up to 1 foot long.
• Leaves: Basal and on the stem, linear to ovate, with or without teeth, smooth or slightly hairy, up to 1 1/2 inches long.
• Flowers: Solitary on slender stalks, with several flowers per stem, yellow.
• Sepals: 5, green, free from each other, about 1/10 inch long.
• Petals: 1-3, yellow, free from each other, about 1/10 inch long.
• Stamens: Up to 10.
• Pistils: Several, with a superior ovary.
• Fruits: Achenes oblongoid, brown, smooth, about 1/20 inch long, minutely beaked.