RANUNCULUS PALUDOSUS
Family and Genus:- See-
Common Names:- Jersey buttercup
Homotypic Synonyms:- Ranunculus chaerophyllus Ranunculus flabellatus,
Ranunculus rhodensis.
Meaning:- Ranunculus (L) Little-frog, diminutive of rana, (reference to the water-
loving habit of many species).
Paludosus (L) Growing in boggy or marshy ground.
General description:- Perennial, with a cluster of ellipsoid or broadly cylindrical
root tubers.
Stems:-
1) 1-3, erect,(5-)10-25(-40) cm, pilose.
Leaves:-
1) Basal,
a) petiole, somewhat longer than the lamina, densely pilose.
b) lamina, very variable, often flabellate or only shallowly crenate-dentate in the
outer leaves and more dissected, with lanceolate lobes in the inner.
Flowers:-
1)1-3(-6).
2) Sepals, appressed, 6-9 mm, elliptic, pilose.
3) Petals, 5 (-8), 10-18 mm, obovate, obtuse, bright yellow.
4) Receptacle, glabrous.
Fruit:-
1) Achenes, numerous, in a dense, shortly cylindrical head 8-18 mm long.
a) body, c. 2 mm, strongly compressed, keeled, sometimes hairy when young,
contracted into a straight or slightly hooked beak, 1-1.5 mm.
Key features:-
1) Achenes, numerous, in a dense, shortly cylindrical head 8-18 mm long.
2) Sepals, appressed,
Habitat:- Dry or seasonally damp grassland, open patches in scrubland vegetation
and dry open shrubby vegetation, fallow fields and terraced olive groves, often in
clayey terra rossa over limestone, 0-1100 m, on Crete occasionally to 1800 m.
Distribution:- Throughout Greece but rare in the interior north. - Mediterranean
region, extending to NW France. Widespread and common on Crete.
Flowering time:- Mid-March to early June.
Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis