Ranunculus subscaposus Hook.f.
Tufted perennial; rhizome 0; stem up to 30 cm tall at fruiting, with appressed hairs. Basal lvs long-petiolate, ternate or ternatifid, triangular-ovate, 1-4 cm diam., with appressed hairs; leaflets and lobes again 3-lobed, toothed. Cauline lvs similar to basal, opposite, smaller. Fls 1-3 per stem, 15-20 mm diam.; pedicels elongating at fruiting, with short appressed hairs. Sepals spreading, with appressed hairs. Petals 5, brownish yellow, narrowly obovate, with sparse appressed hairs on back; nectary single, c. 2 mm from petal base, covered by a small rounded scale. Receptacle hairy. Achenes very numerous, flattened, usually with a few appressed hairs on angles; body 2-2.5 mm long; beak straight, tapering, flattened, c. 1 mm long.
A., C.
Endemic.
Damp coastal sites, forest margins and scrub, streamsides and swamps, alpine herbfield and turf, 0-500 m.
On A., R. subscaposus lvs are less deeply divided with broader, more often overlapping, lobes and blunter teeth than those of plants from C. Such plants from A. have been known as R. aucklandicus A. Gray. Alpine plants of R. subscaposus from both islands (R. subantarcticus F. Fisher et Hair) differ slightly in habit and in chromosome morphology; R. subantarcticus is treated here as a synonym of R. subscaposus.
