Ranunculus abortivus

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Ranunculus abortivus
Ranunculus abortivus.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Genus: Ranunculus
Species:
R. abortivus
Binomial name
Ranunculus abortivus
L.

Ranunculus abortivus is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Its common names include littleleaf buttercup, [1] small-flower crowfoot, [2] small-flowered buttercup, [3] and kidneyleaf buttercup. [4] It is widespread across much of North America, found in all ten Canadian provinces as well as Yukon and the Northwest Territories, and most of the United States, except Hawaii, Oregon, California, and parts of the Southwest. [1] [5]

Contents

The specific epithet abortivus is an adjective from Latin aborior "pass away". It is unknown to what it refers, but it might describe the small petals that look like they have not fully developed. [6]

Description

Basal leaves, stem leaves, and flower Ranunculus abortivus 3-eheep (5097350841).jpg
Basal leaves, stem leaves, and flower
An illustration of an entire plant, from The plants of southern New Jersey (1911), by Witmer Stone The plants of southern New Jersey; with especial reference to the flora of the pine barrens and the geographic distribution of the species (1911) (14597816759a).jpg
An illustration of an entire plant, from The plants of southern New Jersey (1911), by Witmer Stone

Ranunculus abortivus produces erect stems 10 to 60 cm (4 to 24 in) tall. The leaves are variable in shape, and both stems and leaves are hairless. The basal leaves are kidney-shaped to circular and persistent, with scalloped margins, and the stem leaves are alternate and deeply lobed or divided. Those at the bottom have long petioles (stems), those at the top are shorter-stemmed to stemless, with narrow blades or lobes. [7]

Each stem can bear up to 50 flowers. The flower has five petals up to 1.5 to 3.5 mm (116 to 18 in) long, [8] with a ring of stamens around a round cluster of green carpels. The carpels develop into brown, shiny rounded and slightly flattened achenes with a tiny beak. [9] [6] It grows in rich, moist woods and alluvial areas. [10]

Ecology

The flowers produce both nectar and pollen, which is eaten or gathered by small bees, ladybugs, and hoverflies and other kinds of flies. The seeds and leaves are an occasional food source for animals. The seeds are eaten by small rodents, such as the eastern chipmunk and meadow vole. As in other buttercups, the leaves are mildly toxic, containing a blistering agent, but they are eaten by cottontail rabbits. Both the leaves and seeds are eaten by turkeys. [9]

Uses

The plant had a variety of uses among Native American groups. The Cherokee cooked and ate the leaves. They used it medicinally for abscesses and sore throat and as a sedative. The Iroquois used it for snakebite and poisoning, smallpox, and toothache. [11]

Related Research Articles

<i>Ficaria verna</i> Species of flowering plant in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae)

Ficaria verna, commonly known as lesser celandine or pilewort, is a low-growing, hairless perennial flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae native to Europe and Western Asia. It has fleshy dark green, heart-shaped leaves and distinctive flowers with bright yellow, glossy petals. It is now introduced in North America, where it is known by the common name fig buttercup and considered an invasive species. The plant is poisonous if ingested raw and potentially fatal to grazing animals and livestock such as horses, cattle, and sheep. For these reasons, several US states have banned the plant or listed it as a noxious weed. It prefers bare, damp ground and is considered by horticulturalists in the United Kingdom as a persistent garden weed; nevertheless, many specialist plantsmen, nursery owners and discerning gardeners in the UK and Europe collect selected cultivars of the plant, including bronze-leaved and double-flowered ones. Emerging in late winter with flowers appearing late February through May in the UK, its appearance across the landscape is regarded by many as a harbinger of spring.

<i>Ranunculus</i> Genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae

Ranunculus is a large genus of about 1700 to more than 1800 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots.

<i>Oenothera speciosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Oenothera speciosa is a species in the evening primrose family known by several common names, including pinkladies, pink evening primrose, showy evening primrose, Mexican primrose, and buttercups.

<i>Anemonoides quinquefolia</i> Species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae

Anemonoides quinquefolia, a flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, is native to North America. It is commonly called wood anemone or windflower, not to be confused with Anemonoides nemorosa, a closely related European species also known by these common names. The specific epithet quinquefolia means "five-leaved", which is a misnomer since each leaf has just three leaflets. A plant typically has a single, small white flower with 5 sepals.

<i>Ranunculus acris</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae

Ranunculus acris is a species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae, and is one of the more common buttercups across Europe and temperate Eurasia. Common names include meadow buttercup, tall buttercup, common buttercup and giant buttercup.

<i>Viola sororia</i> Species of flowering plant genus Viola, in Eudicot family, Violaceae

Viola sororia, known commonly as the common blue violet, is a short-stemmed herbaceous perennial plant that is native to eastern North America. It is known by a number of common names, including common meadow violet, purple violet, woolly blue violet, hooded violet, and wood violet.

<i>Uvularia grandiflora</i> Species of flowering plant

Uvularia grandiflora, the large-flowered bellwort or merrybells, is a species of flowering plant in the family Colchicaceae, native to eastern and central North America.

<i>Trillium cuneatum</i> Species of flowering plant

Trillium cuneatum, the little sweet betsy, also known as whip-poor-will flower, large toadshade, purple toadshade, and bloody butcher, is a species of flowering plant in the family Melanthiaceae. It is a member of the Trillium cuneatum complex, a subgroup of the sessile-flowered trilliums. It is native to the southeastern United States but is especially common in a region that extends from southern Kentucky through central Tennessee to northern Alabama. In its native habitat, this perennial plant flowers from early March to late April. It is the largest of the eastern sessile-flowered trilliums.

<i>Trillium sessile</i> Species of flowering plant

Trillium sessile is a species of flowering plant in the bunchflower family Melanthiaceae. The specific epithet sessile means "attached without a distinct stalk", an apparent reference to its stalkless flower. It is commonly known as toadshade or toad trillium. It is also called sessile trillium or sessile-flowered wake-robin, however it is not the only member of the genus with a sessile flower.

<i>Ranunculus sceleratus</i> Species of buttercup

Ranunculus sceleratus known by the common names celery-leaved buttercup, celery-leaf buttercup, and cursed buttercup is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It has a circumpolar distribution in the northern hemisphere, native to temperate and boreal North America and Eurasia, where it grows in wet and moist habitats, including ponds and streambanks.

<i>Tephrosia virginiana</i> Species of legume

Tephrosia virginiana, also known as goat-rue, goat's rue, catgut, rabbit pea, Virginia tephrosia, hoary pea, and devil's shoestring is a perennial dicot in family Fabaceae. The plant is native to central and eastern North America.

<i>Ranunculus eschscholtzii</i> Species of flowering plant

Ranunculus eschscholtzii is a species of buttercup flower known by the common name Eschscholtz's buttercup.

<i>Enemion biternatum</i> Species of flowering plant

Enemion biternatum, commonly known as the false rue-anemone, is a spring ephemeral native to moist deciduous woodland in the eastern United States and extreme southern Ontario.

<i>Ranunculus auricomus</i> Species of flowering plant

Ranunculus auricomus, known as goldilocks buttercup or Greenland buttercup, is a perennial species of buttercup native to Eurasia. It is a calcicole typically found in moist woods and at the margins of woods. It is apomictic, and several hundred agamospecies have been recognised.

<i>Claytonia caroliniana</i> Species of flowering plant

Claytonia caroliniana, the Carolina springbeauty, is an herbaceous perennial in the family Montiaceae. It was formerly placed in the Portulacaceae. Its native range is eastern and central North America. It is most commonly found in the New England area of the United States but its habitat extends from Ontario and a northern limit in the Cape Anguille Mountains of Newfoundland and south to Alabama. It grows approximately 6 inches tall in forests of the Appalachian Mountains and piedmont

<i>Trillium maculatum</i> Species of flowering plant

Trillium maculatum, the spotted wakerobin or spotted trillium, is a species of flowering plant in the family Melanthiaceae. It is a member of the Trillium cuneatum complex, a closely-related group of sessile-flowered trilliums. The species is endemic to the southeastern United States, ranging across Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and northern Florida.

<i>Ranunculus acaulis</i> Species of flowering plant

Ranunculus acaulis, in Australia and New Zealand called dune buttercup, sand buttercup or shore buttercup, is a yellow-flowered, small, fleshy herb, that grows in mats in damp places mostly near the sea. It occurs naturally in Australia, New Zealand, Chile and the Falklands. It flowers between August and April and sets seed from September till July.

<i>Ranunculus hispidus</i> Species of flowering plant

Ranunculus hispidus is a species of perennial flowering plant in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. It is commonly known as bristly buttercup or hispid buttercup. It is a small plant native to central and eastern North America that grows to a height up to 30 cm (1 ft) and has 5-petaled yellow flowers.

<i>Ranunculus fascicularis</i> Species of plant

Ranunculus fascicularis, commonly called early buttercup, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). It is native to the eastern North America, where it is found in Canada and the United States. It is generally widespread in eastern North America, although its populations become sporadic in areas east of the Appalachian Mountains and south of New England. Its natural habitat is in dry areas with sparse vegetation, such as rocky or sandy bluffs, prairies, and savannas.

<i>Ranunculus allegheniensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Ranunculus allegheniensis is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Its common names include Allegheny Mountain buttercup and Allegheny crowfoot.

References

  1. 1 2 USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Ranunculus abortivus". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  2. "Ranunculus abortivus". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  3. "Ranunculus abortivus". Tropicos . Missouri Botanical Garden.
  4. Ranunculus abortivus. NatureServe. 2012.
  5. "Ranunculus abortivus". State-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
  6. 1 2 "Kidneyleaf Buttercup, Littleleaf Buttercup, Ranunculus abortivus L." Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden. The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden.
  7. Haddock, Mike (2018). "Early wood buttercup". Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses.
  8. Whittemore, Alan T. (1997). "Ranunculus abortivus". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 3. New York and Oxford via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  9. 1 2 Hilty, John (2020). "Small-Flowered Buttercup (Ranunculus abortivus)". Illinois Wildflowers.
  10. "Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of Texas at Austin". www.wildflower.org. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
  11. Ranunculus abortivus. Native American Ethnobotany. University of Michigan, Dearborn.

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