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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Eschscholtz Butter-cup
Ranunculus eschscholtzii Schlecht.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Butter-cup (Ranunculaceae)
Flowering: July-August
Field Marks: This butter-cup has deeply 3-parted leaves, 5 yellow petals 1/4-1/2 inch long, an elongated, cylindrical fruiting head, and a very tiny achene with a slender beak.
Habitat: Moist meadows, moist rocky areas.
Habit: Perennial herb with a thickened crown and fibrous roots.
Stems: Upright, usually unbranched, up to 1 foot tall, smooth.
Leaves: Mostly basal with a few on the stem, circular in outline, deeply 3-parted, up to 1 1/2 inches wide; stalks up to 3 inches long.
Flowers: 1-few at the tip of the stems, on stalks up to 4 inches long.
Sepals: 5, yellow tinged with lavender, free from each other, 1/6-1/3 inch long, smooth or sparsely hairy.
Petals: 5, yellow, free from each other, obovate, 1/3-1/2 inch long.
Stamens: 20-40.
Pistils: Many in an ovoid head, the ovaries superior.
Fruits: Achenes many in an ovoid head 1/2-3/4 inch long, 1/4-1/3 inch thick, each achene oblongoid, about 1/20 inch long, with a slender beak.
Notes: The achenes are eaten by small animals.

Previous Species -- Seaside Butter-cup (Ranunculus cymbalaria)
Return to Species List -- Group 8
Next Species -- Spearwort Butter-cup (Ranunculus flammula)

U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/8/ranuesch.htm
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