Online Virtual Flora of Wisconsin

Ranunculus hispidus Michx.

Family: Ranunculaceae

bristly buttercup, hispid buttercup, rough buttercup

from USDA Plants website

Scott B. Sauer

University of Wisconsin - Madison (WIS-VP)

Open Interactive Map

Etymology: Ranunculus: from Latin rana, "little frog," because many species tend to grow in moist places
Plants: erect to creeping, perennial, 6"-36" tall, hairy forb, occasionally rooting at the node
Leaves: basal and stem leaves much the same shape with basal the largest, wider than long, mostly 3-parted into deep lobes which are then cut or toothed, the end segment stalked
Flowers: yellow, 5-8-parted, 1/2"-1" wide, normally 5 sepals, petals widest above the middle and the same to 2 times as long as the sepals; solitary, stalked flowers; blooms May-June
Fruits: dry seed with ribbed to almost winged margin, lance-shaped mostly straight beak
Habitat: medium moisture to moist; upland, lowland, swamps, marshes
Hazardous: Careful, this plant is hazardous!
Conservation Status: Native

Along streams and in vernal pools in mesic woods, floodplain forests, swamps of black ash-white cedar-balsam fir, white cedar, cottonwood, or ash-elm; wet fields, sedge meadows, ditches, along streams and riverbanks, lakeshores, wet prairies, dolomite shores of Lake Michigan, springy hillsides, wet cliffs, marshes, alder thickets, wet waste areas, and low areas along railroad tracks.

One of our most common wetland buttercups, the bright yellow blooms brightening up forest understories in spring. We have two varieties in the state: var. caricetorum (Greene) T. Duncan with petals over 1 cm long, achene wings 0.1–0.2 mm wide, and a coarser habit and var. nitidus (R. septentrionalis Poir.) with petals less than 1 cm long and achene wings 0.4–1.2 mm wide. The two varieties overlap in range in Wisconsin and are found mostly in the southern and eastern halves of the state but are scattered northwestward.