Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Ranunculus muricatus

Common name

Sharp Buttercup, Burr Buttercup, Prickle-fruit Buttercup

Family

Ranunculaceae

Where found

Lawns, pastures, gardens, roadsides, disturbed sites, stream banks, moist gullies, heavy waterlogged soils, and bogs. Widespread. No records from Kosciuszko National Park.

Notes

Introduced annual herb, to 0.5 m high, stoloniferous, hairless, sparsely hairy or slightly rough. Leaves basal and alternating up the stems, 1–5 cm long, 10-50 mm wide, entire or 3-5 lobed, margins scalloped or toothed. Upper stem leaves more or less wedge shaped, with 3 narrow, entire or toothed, lobes. Flowers yellow, glossy, with 5 petals each 6–10 mm long. Sepals strongly turned down. Flowers in loose 1-10-flowered clusters. Flowers Aug.–Nov. Seeds 8–25, brown, broadly oval, flattened, 5–8 mm long, margin strongly keeled and grooved, faces with stout wart-based tapering spines or rarely almost smooth, beak stout, slightly curved down to almost straight, 1.5–4 mm long.

 PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Ranunculus~muricatus (accessed 4 February, 2021)