Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Ranunculus sessiliflorus
Common name
Small-flowered buttercup, Annual buttercup
Family
Ranunculaceae
Where found
Dry forest, woodland, and grassy areas, on intermittently moist sites. Widespread.
var. pilulifer: Western Slopes.
var. sessiliflorus: Western Slopes, Kosciuszko National Park, the mountains to the north, ACT, and tablelands. Sydney area. Rare elsewhere.
Notes
Annual herb to 0.4 m tall, variably hairy to almost hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.4-2 cm long, 4-20 mm wide, hairy to hairless. Juvenile leaves often kidney shaped and broader than long, compound or lobed, with 3-5 toothed to scalloped lobes or leaflets. Adult leaves dissected or compound with 3-5 lobes or leaflets, the lobes or leaflets sometimes toothed or again divided. Flowers about 2-4 mm in diameter with 0-2 yellow or pale yellow-green to whitish petals each 1-2 mm long, and 3-4 sepals 1.5-2.5 mm long. Sepals curved down. Flowers single at the bases of the leaves, stalkless or on short stalks. Flowers Spring-Summer. Seeds about 10–20, oval to round, 1.5–2 mm long, flat to slightly biconvex, the faces with scattered warts each terminated by a hooked bristle; beak pointed, about 0.3–0.5 mm long.
var. pilulifer: Leaves deeply lobed with narrow-linear segments; margins entire or pointedly toothed.
var. sessiliflorus: Leaves shallowly to deeply 3–5-lobed, the lobes more or less fan-shaped, entire or with blunt to broadly pointed teeth.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Ranunculus~sessiliflorus (accessed 4 February, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
