Ranunculus sceleratus L.
celery-leaved buttercup
Annual; roots all fibrous. Stems stout, erect, glabrous or with sparse appressed hairs, (10)-30-60-(75) cm tall. Basal and lower cauline lvs broadly ovate to reniform, cordate, deeply 3-(5)-lobed, glabrous or with fine appressed hairs, (1)-3-5-(8) × (1.5)-4-6-(10) cm; lobes obovate-cuneate, again shallowly 3-lobed and with crenate margins; petioles glabrous, (2)-5-10-(30) cm long. Upper cauline lvs similar; lobes becoming lanceolate, entire; uppermost lvs subsessile, not lobed, becoming finely appressed-hairy. Fls usually > 30 per stem, 6-10 mm diam. Pedicels erect, numerous, with sparse, fine hairs, sulcate, 2.5-4-(6) cm long at fruiting. Sepals 5, hairy, deflexed, acute, 3-4 mm long. Petals 5, pale yellow, broadly obovate, 3-4 × 2.5 mm; nectary single, 0.5 mm from petal base, pocket-like. Receptacle elongated, cylindric, hairy. Achenes (100)-200-400-(700), in cylindric heads, glabrous, hardly flattened, weakly keeled, obovoid, weakly rugulose; body c. 1 × 0.8 mm; beak < 0.5 mm long.
N.; S.: throughout.
Europe, S.W. and C. Asia, N. and tropical Africa 1878
Drains, ponds, damp pasture, wet roadsides, stream banks, lagoons, swamps.
Poisonous (Connor 1977).
