hooked buttercup

(Ranunculus recurvatus var. recurvatus)

Conservation Status
hooked buttercup
 
  IUCN Red List

not listed

     
  NatureServe

N5 - Secure

SNR - Unranked

     
  Minnesota

not listed

     
           
Wetland Indicator Status
     
  Great Plains

FACW - Facultative wetland

     
  Midwest

FACW - Facultative wetland

     
  Northcentral & Northeast

FACW - Facultative wetland

     
           
 
Description
 
 

Hooked buttercup is a common, easily identified, woodland spring wildflower. It occurs in the United States from Maine to South Carolina west to Minnesota and Oklahoma, and in adjacent Canadian provinces. It is found in wet to moderately moist or sometimes dry woodlands, in woodland openings and trails, on banks of rivers and streams, and in swamps and fens. It grows in rich organic soil under light to medium shade. It produces small flowers that are not showy from May to June. It is poisonous when eaten and causes contact dermatitis when handled.

Hooked buttercup is a 8 to 27½ (20 to 70 cm) tall, erect, perennial forb that rises on one or more stems from fleshy roots and a thickened, corm-like base. The roots are never tuberous. The stems are round, few-branched, and erect or curving upward from the base (ascending). They do not root at the lower nodes. They are moderately to densely covered with long, fine, spreading hairs.

Basal leaves are on hairy, up to 6 (15 cm) long leaf stalks (petioles) that partially surround (sheath) the stem at the base. The leaf blade is egg-shaped to kidney-shaped in outline, shallowly to deeply heart-shaped at the base, ¾ to 3 (2.0 to 7.5 cm) long, and 1316 to 4½ (3.0 to 11.6 cm) wide. It is moderately to deeply cut into three lobes. The lobes are oblong to diamond-shaped (rhombic) and may be again cut into two or three lobes. They may be blunt or sharply pointed at the tip. The margins may be scalloped or have fine but blunt teeth. The upper and lower surfaces are moderately covered with long soft hairs.

Stem leaves are few. They are similar to basal leaves but they get smaller, less divided, and on shorter petioles as they ascend the stem. Uppermost leaves are often stalkless or almost stalkless.

The inflorescence is a few solitary flowers, each rising on a hairy stalk (pedicel) from an upper leaf axil at the end of the stem.

Each flower is ¼ to wide. There are 5 outer floral leaves (sepals), 5 petals, and numerous stamens. At the center of the flower there is a dense cluster of green pistils. The sepals are light green, to ¼ (3 to 6 mm) long, and 116 to (1.5 to 2.5 mm) wide. They are strongly bent backward at or near the base and hang downward when the flower is in bloom. They are more or less flat, with no transverse fold. The petals are pale yellow and about as long or slightly shorter than the sepals. They are lance-shaped to broadly oblong-lance-shaped, to 316 (3 to 5 mm) long, and 132 to 116 (1 to 2 mm) wide. The stamens form a ring around the base of the cluster of pistils. The stamen stalks (filaments) are whitish, hairless, and 116 to (2 to 3 mm) long. The anthers are yellow. Each pistil has a single tiny style.

The fruit is a dry seed capsule (achene) replacing each pistil. As the achenes begin to develop, the petals and sepals fall to the ground, leaving an egg-shaped to more or less globe-shaped, 316 to ¼ (5 to 7 mm) long seed head. Each achene is shaped like a thickened lentil, 116 (1.6 to 2.2 mm) long and 132 to 116 (1.4 to 1.8 mm) wide. The outer margin is strongly ridged (keeled). The faces appear smooth, but strong magnification reveals a minutely pitted surface. There is a slender extension (beak) at the end of the achene. The beak is lance-shaped and strongly curved, appearing hooked. This is the feature that gives the plant its common name.

 
     
 

Height

 
 

8 to 27½ (20 to 70 mm)

 
     
 

Flower Color

 
 

Pale yellow

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
 

The large lobed leaves and small pale yellow petals help to identify hooked buttercup. The hooked beak of the achenes confirm it.

Kidney-leaved buttercup (Ranunculus abortivus) basal leaves are kidney-shaped and undivided.

Pennsylvania buttercup (Ranunculus pensylvanicus) basal leaves are divided into three leaflets. The lateral leaflets may be stalked or unstalked but the terminal leaflet is always distinctly stalked. It blooms in the summer, not in the spring.

 
     
 
Habitat
 
 

Wet to moderately moist or sometimes dry woodlands, woodland openings and trails, banks of rivers and streams, swamps, and fens. Light to medium shade.

 
     
 
Ecology
 
 

Flowering

 
 

May to June

 
     
 

Pests and Diseases

 
 

 

 
     
 
Use
 
 

Toxicity

 
 

Most members of the genus Ranunculus, including hooked buttercup, are poisonous. They contain ranunculin, which causes blistering in the mouth and in the gastrointestinal tract when eaten. Handling the plants causes ranunculin to be broken down into protoanemonin, which causes contact dermatitis.

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 28, 29, 30.

 
  4/15/2022      
         
 

Nativity

 
 

Native

 
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Common

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
  Kingdom Plantae (green algae and land plants)  
  Subkingdom Viridiplantae (green plants)  
  Infrakingdom Streptophyta (land plants and green algae)  
  Superdivision Embryophyta (land plants)  
  Division Tracheophyta (vascular plants)  
  Subdivision Spermatophytina (seed plants)  
  Class Magnoliopsida (flowering plants)  
  Superorder Ranunculanae  
 

Order

Ranunculales (buttercups, poppies, and allies)  
 

Family

Ranunculaceae (buttercup)  
  Subfamily Ranunculoideae (anemones, buttercups, larkspurs and allies)  
  Tribe Ranunculeae  
 

Genus

Ranunculus (buttercups)  
  Species Ranunculus recurvatus (hooked buttercup)  
       
 

There are two subspecies of hooked buttercup. Only var. recurvatus occurs in North America.

 
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

Ranunculus recurvatus var. adpressipilis

Ranunculus recurvatus var. typicus

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

blisterwort

hooked buttercup

littleleaf buttercup

small-flower crowfoot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Achene

A dry, one-chambered, single-seeded seed capsule, formed from a single carpel, with the seed attached to the membranous outer layer (wall) only by the seed stalk; the wall, formed entirely from the wall of the superior ovary, does not split open at maturity, but relies on decay or predation to release the contents.

 

Ascending

Growing upward at an angle or curving upward from the base.

 

Corm

A short, solid, vertical, thickened, underground stem that serves as a storage organ.

 

Filament

On plants: The thread-like stalk of a stamen which supports the anther. On Lepidoptera: One of a pair of long, thin, fleshy extensions extending from the thorax, and sometimes also from the abdomen, of a caterpillar.

 

Keeled

Folded, as in a grass blade, or with a raised ridge, as in a grass sheath; like the keel of a boat.

 

Oblong

Two to four times longer than wide with nearly parallel sides.

 

Pedicel

On plants: the stalk of a single flower in a cluster of flowers. On insects: the second segment of the antennae. On Hymenoptera and Araneae: the narrow stalk connecting the thorax to the abdomen: the preferred term is petiole.

 

Petiole

On plants: The stalk of a leaf blade or a compound leaf that attaches it to the stem. On ants and wasps: The constricted first one or two segments of the rear part of the body.

 

Sepal

An outer floral leaf, usually green but sometimes colored, at the base of a flower.

 

Sheath

The lower part of the leaf that surrounds the stem.

 
 
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Plant

 
    hooked buttercup   hooked buttercup  
           
    hooked buttercup   hooked buttercup  
           
    hooked buttercup      
           
 

Inflorescence

 
    hooked buttercup   hooked buttercup  
           
 

Flower head

 
    hooked buttercup      
           
 

Stem leaves

 
    hooked buttercup   hooked buttercup  
           
 

Variegated basal leaves

 
    hooked buttercup   hooked buttercup  

 

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Other Videos
 
  Woodland Edge: Hooked Buttercup
Sanders' Wildflowers
 
   
 
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Mar 5, 2020

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Created: 7/4/2021

Last Updated:

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