Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Sagebrush buttercup

(Ranunculus glaberrimus)

galery
en

Description

Ranunculus glaberrimus, the sagebrush buttercup, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. It is native to interior western North America, in western Canada, the western United States, and the northwestern Great Plains. Ranunculus glaberrimus is found from central British Columbia east to southern Saskatchewan, south through the Dakotas to Kansas, through the Rocky Mountains southeast to northern New Mexico, west to the Great Basin region, and southwest to northeastern California. It occurs in habitat types with junipers (Juniperus occidentalis), sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata), in damp ground. It flowers relatively early. Ranunculus glaberrimus is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 4–15 centimetres (1+1⁄2–6 in) tall. The roots are clustered and fleshy. The somewhat thick basal leaves are oval, with long petioles, ranging from entire to having three deep lobes. Cauline leaves have short petioles but are otherwise similar. The flowers have four to ten yellow petals (usually five) about 1 cm long. The sepals are yellow-purple, and the stamens and pistils are numerous. The species is reportedly toxic to livestock and possibly to humans as well. Ranunculus is a large genus of about 600 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The familiar and widespread buttercup of gardens throughout Northern Europe (and introduced elsewhere) is the creeping buttercup Ranunculus repens, which has extremely tough and tenacious roots. Two other species are also widespread, the bulbous buttercup Ranunculus bulbosus and the much taller meadow buttercup Ranunculus acris. In ornamental gardens, all three are often regarded as weeds. Buttercups usually flower in the spring, but flowers may be found throughout the summer, especially where the plants are growing as opportunistic colonizers, as in the case of garden weeds. The water crowfoots (Ranunculus subgenus Batrachium), which grow in still or running water, are sometimes treated in a separate genus Batrachium (from Greek βάτραχος bátrakhos, "frog"). They have two different leaf types, thread-like leaves underwater and broader floating leaves. In some species, such as R. aquatilis, a third, intermediate leaf type occurs.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Ranunculales
Family:Ranunculaceae
Genus:Ranunculus
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