Annual or perennial herbs, tufted, rhizomatous, sometimes aquatic
Stem
branched or simple, leafy, sometimes scapose
Leaves
alternate, often radical, entire, cordate, peltate, palmately or pinnately compound or pinnatisect
Flowers
bisexual, in corymbiform or subpaniculiform cymes or solitary
Sepals
3-5, caducous
Petals
as many as or more than sepals, usually yellow or white, with basal, nectariferous pit
Stamens
many, shorter than sepals and petals
Carpels
many, in several series, each with 1 ascending ovule; stigma often sessile
Fruitlets
clustered achenes, each apiculate or rostrate with persistent style, smooth, striate, ribbed, rugose, or spiny; cotyledons 2(1), sometimes strongly fused
x = 7, 8 (6) (high polyploidy, B-chromosomes)
Nomenclature:
Ranunculus
L.
Linnaeus: 548 (1753)
Linnaeus: 243 (1754)
Harvey: 5 (1860)
Adamson: 402 (1950)
Milne-Redhead & Turrill: 19 (1952)
Exell & Milne-Redhead: 97 (1960)
Ross: 169 (1972)
Tamura: 579 (1993)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 250, cosmopolitan, mainly temperate
Southern Africa
: Species 7, widespread
References:
ADAMSON, R.S. 1950.
Ranunculaceae
Juss. In R.S. Adamson & T.M. Salter,
Flora of the Cape Peninsula
. Juta, Cape Town
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Species plantarum
, edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
LINNAEUS, C. 1754.
Genera plantarum
, edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
MILNE-REDHEAD, E. & TURRILL, W.B. 1952.
Ranunculaceae
.
Flora of tropical East Africa
.
Ranunculaceae
ROSS, J.H. 1972. Flora of Natal.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
No. 39
TAMURA, M. 1993.
Ranunculaceae
. In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich,
The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons
2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
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