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Key to Ranunculus
https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=39846
1 Petals dull, white; achenes roughly transverse-ridged; plants aquatic, the leaves finely dissected to merely shallowly lobed; [native, occurring in circumneutral waters]; [subgenus Auricomus; section Batrachium] | |
1 Petals shiny, yellow (sometimes fading or bleaching to whitish); achenes usually not transverse-ridged (though often variously ornamented); plants aquatic or terrestrial, the leaves various; [native or introduced, occurring in various habitats]. | |
2 Cauline leaves all simple, mostly lanceolate, either entire, denticulate, or serrate, but not lobed or deeply divided; [native, occurring in marshes or other wetlands]; [subgenus Auricomus; section Flammula] | |
3 Basal leaves not divided, mostly cordate, reniform, or ovate (and merely toothed), distinctly unlike the deeply divided cauline leaves; achenes turgid, ovoid, 1-2.5 mm long, without pronounced marginal rims; petals 1.5-6.5 mm long; [native, occurring in mesic to dry forests and woodlands, and also (especially R. abortivus) weedy]; [subgenus Auricomus; section Auricomus] | |
4 Achenes markedly spiny, papillose, or tuberculate (the protuberances few and small in R. sardous, keyed both here and below); [introduced, usually weedy and in disturbed habitats] | |
5 Achenes moderately turgid or flattened, 1.5-3.8 mm long, with a pronounced (at 10× or more) marginal rim appearing as a differentiated border or flange, more-or-less flattened, and separated from the central bulge of the achene by a concavity or even a groove, the achenes not corky-thickened at their bases; [of mostly terrestrial habitats or in bottomland forests] |
Key to Ranunculus, Key A: subgenus Auricomus; section Batrachium (White Water Crowfoots)
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https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=39847
Key to Ranunculus, Key B: subgenus Auricomus; section Flammula (simple-leaved buttercups) (Spearworts)
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https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=39848
2 Lower stem leaves 6-14 cm long; sepals 4-7 mm long; achene beaks 1.0-1.3 mm long | |
2 Lower stem leaves 1-6.5 cm long; sepals 1.5-4 mm long; achene beaks 0.1-0.6 mm long. | |
Key to Ranunculus, Key C: subgenus Auricomus; section Auricomus
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3 Leaves and stems glabrous or nearly so (or the upper stem puberulent); basal leaves 1-6 (-10) cm wide, reniform to cordate at the base; roots usually all filiform; receptacle surface (with achenes removed or fallen off) pubescent (at least sparsely so); achenes shiny | |
Key to Ranunculus, Key D: subgenus Ranunculus; sections Polyanthemos, Ranunculus, and Echinella
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https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=39850
1 Flowers sessile, opposite the petioles; sepals 3; petals 3; [section Polyanthemos] | |
2 Petals (3-) 4-12 mm long; receptacles pubescent. | |
4 Achene with numerous short spines; petals (3-) 4-5 mm long; plant with a few, widely scattered, long hairs; achenes 40-60 per head | |
Key to Ranunculus, Key E: subgenus Auricomus; section Hecatonia
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Key to Ranunculus, Key F: subgenus Ranunculus; section Polyanthemos (and Ranunculus)
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https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=39852
6 Petals 8-16 mm long; plant a cormose or hard-based perennial; achene face truly smooth. | |
8 Larger leaves mostly pinnately 3-7-foliolate, the terminal leaflet larger than the lateral leaflets, the leaflets (especially the terminal) often further cleft or lobed, the blade usually longer than wide in outline, the segments often rather narrow; naked receptacle conical, tapering gradually to the apex (the region of staminal attachment as thick as the region of gynoecial attachment, which tapers through all or nearly all of its length, best seen by stripping off the achenes); rhizome regenerating totally each growing season, producing both fibrous and (at the end of the growing season) tuberous roots (1.3-4.9 mm in diameter); [rare in our area, in calcareous, mafic, or ultramafic sites with prairie affinities] | |
8 Larger leaves mostly palmately 3-foliolate, the terminal leaflet about the same size as the lateral leaflets, the leaflets sometimes further cleft or lobed, the blade usually as wide as long or wider; naked receptacle clavate or ellipsoid (the region of staminal attachment distinctly narrower than the region of gynoecial attachment, thus forming a waist, from which the gynoecial region expands and then tapers to the apex); rhizome regenerated partially each growing season, producing uniform, fibrous roots (up to 3.0 mm in diameter); leaves usually simple and ovate, or trifoliate with ovate leaflets; [collectively widespread in our area]. | |
9 Achenes narrow-margined (wider portions of the margin 1/8 or less as wide as the achene body); plants usually erect or repent by the time of fruiting (if repent sometimes forming adventitious roots at the nodes, but not generally developing new plants); sepals spreading at full anthesis (sometimes reflexed later). | |
10 Plants erect; aerial shoots 14-45 (-60) cm long at time of fruiting; [generally of upland habitats] |