Ranunculaceae (ra-nun-kew-LAY-see-ee)
Iconic Features
- Leaves usually compound or lobed
- Flower parts in indefinite numbers
- Petals freely attached
- Stamens usually numerous
Description (Jepson)
- Eudicotyledons (eudicots) – a major lineage of flowering plants including most plants traditionally described as dicots and generally characterized by
- 2 seed leaves (dicotyledon)
- Netted (reticulate) leaf venation
- Flower parts in fours and fives
- Pollen grains with 3 pores (tricolpate)
- Vascular bundles in stem arranged in a ring
- Taproot system
- Generally herbaceous annuals and perennials, with some woody climbers and shrubs
- Leaves
- Simple (not divided into leaflets) and palmately lobed, or ternately compound (divided into 3 leaflets)
- Alternate (1 leaf at each junction with stem) or opposite (2 leaves at each junction with stem)
- Flowers
- Inflorescence (flower arrangement) in many forms
- Generally bisexual and radially symmetric
- Petals freely attached
- Parts in indefinite numbers, a trait of simple, primitive flowers
- Stamen (male flower part) usually numerous
- Ovary superior (above the attachment of other flower parts)
- Fruit is a follicle (a dry, multi-seeded pod that opens on one side), achene (a single-seeded, dry fruit that does not split open), or berry (a usually multi-seeded fruit with a fleshy ovary wall)
Notes
- Approximately 1,700 species worldwide
- Includes columbine, anemone, larkspur, monkshood, and clematis
- Many species used as ornamentals and a few are sources for medicinal drugs
- Some species highly toxic
- Scientific name from its largest included genus Ranunculus, from the Latin rana, “little frog,” as many species grow in wet places
- Represented by 11 species at Edgewood
General References
Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.
Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.
Charters, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.
Charters, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.
Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.
Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.
Flora of North America. efloras.org.
Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.
Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.
Native American Ethnobotany DB.
Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.
Browse Some Edgewood Plants in this Family
