Ranunculus sardous Crantz
hairy buttercup
Annual; roots all fibrous. Stems stout, erect, hairy, 20-45 cm tall. Basal lvs deltoid, distinctly ternate, (2)-3-5-(8) × (2)-3-5-(8) cm; leaflets cuneate, (2)-3-lobed, toothed, hairy; middle leaflet distinctly stipitate and deeply 3-fid; petioles hairy, 6-15-(25) cm long. Cauline lvs similar to basal, but with narrower leaflets, becoming smaller. Fls (1)-6-15-(20) per stem, (12)-15-25 mm diam. Pedicels erect, hairy, sulcate, 3-6 cm long at fruiting. Sepals 5, hairy, deflexed at flowering, acute, c. 5 mm long. Petals 5, pale yellow, obovate, 8-10 × 6-7 mm; nectary single, basal, covered by an obtuse scale. Receptacle hairy. Achenes 30-40, glabrous, strongly flattened, distinctly bordered, broadly obovate to suborbicular; body 2-2.5 × 2-2.5 mm; face bluntly tuberculate near margin; beak curving upward, c. 0.5 mm long.
N.: Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Taranaki, Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay, Manawatu, Wellington; S.: Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago.
Europe 1878
Waste land, roadsides, swampy and damp pastures, ditches, streamsides.
R. sardous is similar to R. bulbosus, but differs in not having a bulbous rootstock, and in having tuberculate achene faces and paler petals. This sp. has also been known in N.Z. as R. philonotis and R. hirsutus.
