Creeping Buttercup

Ranunculus repens is widely naturalized in many parts of the world. Plants with sparse pubescence have been called R . repens var. glabratus . Horticultural forms with the outer stamens transformed into numerous extra petals occasionally become established and have been called R . repens var. pleniflorus . These variants have no taxonomic significance.

Stems decumbent or creeping, rooting nodally, hispid to strigose or almost glabrous, base not bulbous. Roots never tuberous. Basal leaf blades ovate to reniform in outline, 3-foliolate, 1-8.5 × 1.5-10 cm, leaflets lobed, parted, or parted and again lobed, ultimate segments obovate to elliptic or sometimes narrowly oblong, margins toothed, apex obtuse to acuminate. Flowers: receptacle hispid or rarely glabrous; sepals spreading or reflexed from base, 4-7(-10) × 1.5-3(-4) mm, hispid or sometimes glabrous; petals 5(-150), yellow, 6-18 × 5-12 mm. Heads of achenes globose or ovoid, 5-10 × 5-8 mm; achenes 2.6-3.2 × 2-2.8 mm, glabrous, margin forming narrow rib 0.1-0.2 mm wide; beak persistent, lanceolate to lance-filiform, curved, 0.8-1.2 mm. 2 n = 14, 32.

Herbs perennial. Stolons present. Stems ascending or suberect, 10--60 cm, subglabrous or sparsely puberulent, branched above. Basal leaves with petiole 7--20 cm; blade ternate, 3-partite, rarely 3-sect, central leaflet broadly rhombic, 2--4.2 × 1.8--3.8 cm, glabrous or adaxially appressed puberulent, base broadly cuneate, secondary lobes lobed or more deeply divided; lateral leaflets oblique, unequally 2- or 3-lobed or -partite. Stem leaves similar to basal ones, smaller and shortly petiolate upward. Monochasium terminal, 2- to several flowered; bracts 3-sect or undivided, lanceolate-linear. Flowers 1.5--2.2 cm in diam. Pedicel 1--8 cm, appressed puberulent. Receptacle puberulent. Sepals 5, elliptic-ovate, 5--7 mm, abaxially appressed pubescent or subglabrous. Petals 5 (7--22 in f. polypetalus), obovate, 7--10 × 5--7 mm, nectary pit covered by a scale, apex rounded or rounded-truncate. Stamens numerous; anthers oblong. Aggregate fruit ovoid, 5--7 mm in diam.; carpels numerous. Achene bilaterally compressed, obliquely obovate, 2.2--3 × 1.8--2.1 mm, glabrous, narrowly marginate; style persistent, 0.5--0.8 mm. Fl. Apr--Aug, fr. May--Aug.

introduced; Greenland; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., N.B., Nfld., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Yukon; Ala., Alaska, Ark., Calif., Conn., Del., D.C., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Central America; South America; native to Eurasia; Pacific Islands; Australia.

Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shanxi, Xinjiang, NW Yunnan [Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia (Siberia); Europe, North America].

Flowering late winter-summer (Mar-Aug).

Meadows, borders of marshes, lawns, roadsides; 0-2500m.

Meadows, moist places, by streams; 300--3300 m.

Ranunculus repens var. erectus de Candolle; R. repens var. glabratus de Candolle; R. repens var. linearilobus de Candolle; R. repens var. pleniflorus Fernald; R. repens var. villosus Lamotte

Ranunculus repens var. brevistylus Maximowicz; R. repens f. polypetalus S. H. Li & Y. H. Huang.