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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Spearwort Butter-cup
Ranunculus flammula L.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Butter-cup (Ranunculaceae)
Flowering: July-August
Field Marks: This butter-cup has simple, toothless and unlobed, smooth leaves, stems that root at the nodes, and sepals up to 1/4 inch long.
Habitat: Marshes, wet meadows.
Habit: Sprawling perennial herb rooting at the nodes.
Stems: Sprawling, rooting at the nodes, usually smooth, slender, up to 1 1/2 feet long.
Leaves: Simple, often clustered at the rooting nodes, narrowly spatulate to oblanceolate, up to 2 1/2 inches long, up to 1/3 inch wide, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, smooth or nearly so, without teeth or lobes.
Flowers: 1-few clustered at the rooting nodes, on stalks up to 3 inches long.
Sepals: 5, greenish yellow, free from each other, up to 1/4 inch long, sometimes turned downward.
Petals: 5 or 10, bright yellow, free from each other, a little longer than the sepals.
Stamens: 20-30.
Pistils: Many in a rounded head, each with a superior ovary.
Fruits: Achenes 10-25, clustered in a rounded head, each achene up to 1/16 inch long, with a short, curved beak.
Notes: The achenes are eaten by waterfowl.

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Next Species -- Sagebrush Butter-cup (Ranunculus glaberrimus)

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Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:28:29 EST
Menlo Park, CA [caww54]