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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Pennsylvania Butter-cup
Ranunculus pensylvanicus L. f.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Butter-cup (Ranunculaceae)
Flowering: July-August
Field Marks: The yellow petals of this species are a little shorter than the sepals. The flattened achenes are borne in a cylindrical head. The terminal lobe of each leaf is stalked.
Habitat: Wet meadows, marshes, roadside ditches.
Habit: Perennial herb with thickened roots.
Stems: Upright, branched, up to 2 feet tall, with spreading hairs.
Leaves: Basal and alternate, deeply 3-lobed, the terminal lobe stalked, with all the lobes coarsely toothed, hairy.
Flowers: Few near the tips of the stems, borne on short, hairy stalks.
Sepals: 5, green, free from each other, up to 1/6 inch long.
Petals: 5, yellow, free from each other, mostly about 1/8 inch long, never as long as the sepals.
Stamens: Numerous.
Pistils: Several crowded together, each with a superior ovary.
Fruits: Several achenes crowded into a cylindrical head up to 3/4 inch long; each achene flattened, nearly spherical, up to 1/8 inch long, with a flat, pointed, straight or curved beak.
Notes: The achenes are eaten by birds.

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/8/ranupens.htm
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Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:28:31 EST
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