Online Virtual Flora of Wisconsin - Ranunculus recurvatus

Ranunculus recurvatus

Family: Ranunculaceae

blisterwort, hooked buttercup

Robert W. Freckmann

Christopher Noll

University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Robert W. Freckmann Herbarium (UWSP)

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Etymology: Ranunculus: from Latin rana, "little frog," because many species tend to grow in moist places
Plants: erect, perennial, 8"-28" tall forb; stems with a few branches
Leaves: basal and stem leaves much the same shape, all but top-most stalked, widely-rounded to kidney-shaped, deeply 3-5 lobed to below the middle
Flowers: pale yellow, 5-parted, 1/4"-1/2" wide, normally 5 sepals, petals thinly-oblong and about same length as the sepals; a few solitary flowers; blooms May-June
Fruits: dry seed
Habitat: dry to moist; woods
Hazardous: Careful, this plant is hazardous!
Conservation Status: Native

Forests of elm-yellow birch-red maple, white cedar-balsam fir-hemlock, oak-aspen-pine, maple-basswood, maple-beech, oak-hickory, maple-oak, hemlock-maple, pine-oak; usually along trails. Also in white cedar swamps and tamarack swamps, black ash swamps, floodplain forests, mesic bluff prairies, and aspen thickets. The small flowers and hooked styles/fruit beaks make this a very easily recognized species, but it is often misidentified. Common across the southern half of the state and the northeastern counties but absent from the sandy interior and appearing again scattered across the north and northwest.