SPECIES DESCRIPTION
RANUNCULUS PALUDOSUS

Family and Genus:- See-
RANUNCULACEAE/Subgen. RANUNCULUS/Sect. RANUNCULASTRUM

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,

Click here for a glossary of terms used

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