Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Ranunculus muricatus
Sharp Buttercup, Burr Buttercup, Prickle-fruit Buttercup
Ranunculaceae
Lawns, pastures, gardens, roadsides, disturbed sites, stream banks, moist gullies, heavy waterlogged soils, and bogs. Widespread. No records from Kosciuszko National Park.
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)
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