Ranunculus repens

Ranunculus repens
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Genus: Ranunculus
Species: R. repens
Binomial name
Ranunculus repens
L.

Ranunculus repens, the creeping buttercup, is a flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to Europe, Asia and northwestern Africa.[1][2] It is also called creeping crowfoot and (along with restharrow) sitfast.[3]

Description

It is a herbaceous, stoloniferous perennial plant growing to 50 cm tall. It has both prostrate running stems, which produce roots and new plants at the nodes, and more or less erect flowering stems. The basal leaves are compound, borne on a 4–20 cm long petiole and divided into three broad leaflets 1.5–8 cm long, shallowly to deeply lobed, each of which is stalked.[4] The leaves higher on the stems are smaller, with narrower leaflets and may be simple and lanceolate. Both the stems and the leaves are finely hairy. The flowers are golden yellow, glossy, and 2–3 cm diameter, usually with five petals, and the flower stem is finely grooved. The gloss is caused by the smooth upper surface of the petal that acts like a mirror; the gloss aids in attracting pollinating insects and thermoregulation of the flower's reproductive organs.[5][6] The fruit is a cluster of achenes 2.5–4 mm long. Creeping buttercup has three-lobed dark green, white-spotted leaves that grow out of the node. It grows in fields and pastures and prefers wet soil.[7][8]

Habitat

In Ireland: very common in damp places, ditches and flooded areas.[4][9]

Cultivation and uses

Creeping buttercup was sold in many parts of the world as an ornamental plant, and has now become an invasive species in many parts of the world.[2]

Like most buttercups, Ranunculus repens is poisonous, although when dried with hay these poisons are lost. The taste of buttercups is acrid, so cattle avoid eating them. The plants then take advantage of the cropped ground around it to spread their stolons. Creeping buttercup also is spread through the transportation of hay. Contact with the sap of the plant can cause skin blistering.[10]

Etymology

Ranunculus is a diminutive of 'rana', meaning 'little frog'. This name is in reference to the amphibious habitat of many Ranunculus species.[11]

Repens means 'creeping' or 'stoloniferous'.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Flora Europaea:
  2. 1 2 Germplasm Resources Information Network: Ranunculus repens
  3. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary entry for "Sit-fast":2. Sc.a. The plants restharrow and creeping crowfoot. 1808 JAMIESON, Sitfasts, restharrow. 1825 {emem} Suppl., Sitfast, Creeping Crowfoot, Ranunculus Repens.
  4. 1 2 Parnell, P. and Curtis, T. 2012. Webb's An Irish Flora. Cork University Press. ISBN 978-185918-4783
  5. ↑ Functional optics of glossy buttercup flowers Journal of the Royal Society Interface 14:20160933
  6. ↑ Buttercups focus light to heat their flowers and attract insects New Scientist 25 February 2017
  7. ↑ Blamey, M. & Grey-Wilson, C. (1989). Flora of Britain and Northern Europe. ISBN 0-340-40170-2
  8. ↑ Flora of NW Europe: Ranunculus repens
  9. ↑ Hackney, P. 1992. Stewart and Corry's Flora of the North-east of Ireland. Third Edition. Institute of Irish Studies and The Queen's University of Belfast ISBN 0-85389-446-9 )HB
  10. ↑ Plants for a Future: Ranunculus repens
  11. 1 2 Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521866453 (hardback), ISBN 9780521685535 (paperback). pp 326, 328
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