RANUNCULUS BREVIFOLIUS
Family and Genus:- See- RANUNCULACEAE/Subgen. RANUNCULUS/Sect.
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Ranunculus (L) Little-frog, diminutive of rana, (reference to the water-
loving habit of many species).
Brevifolius (L) Short leaved, with short leaves.
General description:- Glabrous perennial with a short, oblique rhizome bearing
long, somewhat fleshy roots.
Stem:-
1) 5-15 cm, usually simple and 1-flowered.
2) Flowering stems 1-3(-5), procumbent to ascending.
Leaves:-
1) Glaucous, glabrous; the lower reniform, entire at the base and then increasingly
coarsely serrate to the apex.
2) Basal, usually several, petiolate, appearing after flowering.
a) blade, reniform.15-40 mm broad, somewhat fleshy, shallowly 3-lobed, usually
glaucous.
3) Lower cauline, sessile.
Flowers:-
1) 1 to several, 15-25 mm diam.
2) Fruiting head, c. 10 mm, subglobose.
3) Petals, 8-12 mm, obovate, bright yellow.
4) Sepals, glabrous, spreading, 2/3 as long as the petals, tinged purple.
5) Honey-leaves, ovate.
5) Receptacle, sparsely hairy.
Fruit:-
1) Achenes, 8-20, not or only slightly compressed
a) body, 3-4 mm, smooth.
b) beak, 1-1.5 mm, slender, circinnate.
Key features:-
1) Basal leaves, several.
2) Achene, 3-4 mm; beak long.
Habitat:- Seasonally damp, stabilized limestone screes, 1400-2300 m
Distribution:- - C ltaly, W Balkan Peninsula from Montenegro to S Greece, also in
SW Anatolia. On Crete confined to the Lefka Ori and Psiloritis massifs.
Flowering time:- May to mid-July, often near patches of melting snow.
Photos by:- Christopher Cheiladakis
SPECIES DESCRIPTION
