Ranunculus muricatus L., Ranunculaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  yes

Common name(s): [more details]

English: roughseed buttercup, sharp buttercup, spiny-fruited buttercup, spring buttercup

French: renoncule à petites pointes, renoncule pied-de-coq

Japanese: togemi-no-kitsune-nobotan

Spanish: centella, guante, hierba de la vaca, huante

Habit:  herb

Description:  "Glabrous to glabrate annual or perhaps sometimes perennial herbs 2-5 dm tall; stems decumbent or erect, not rooting at the nodes.  Basal leaves simple, broadly cordate, reniform, or semiorbicular, blades 2-5.5 cm long, 2-8.5 cm wide, deeply 3-parted and again shallowly crenately lobed.  Flowers 1-2; receptacle subglobose, hirsute; sepals ovate, 4-7 mm long, spreading, apex mucronate, caducous; petals 5, yellow, obovate, 5-8 mm long, base with a truncate nectary scale.  Achenes 10-20 in a globose head, obovate, ca. 5-6 mm long, the faces covered with stout, curved spines, glabrous, margins keeled, beak 2-2.5 mm long, falcate"  (Wagner et al., 1999; p. 1089).

Habitat/ecology:  In Hawai‘i, "naturalized in fields and pastures, 1,220-1,380 m"  (Wagner et al., 1999; p. 1089).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Eurasia (Wagner et al., 1999; p. 1089).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Hawai‘i (Big) Island	introduced invasive	Wagner, Warren L./Herbst, Derral R./Sohmer, S. H. (1999) (p. 1089) Voucher cited: Christ s.n. (BISH)

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Australia Australia (continental)	Australia (continental)		Hafliger, Toni J./Wolf, Matthias (1988) (p. 66)
Chile (continental) Chile	Chile (Republic of)		Hafliger, Toni J./Wolf, Matthias (1988) (p. 66)
China China	China (People's Republic of)		Hafliger, Toni J./Wolf, Matthias (1988) (p. 66)
Japan Japan	Japan (country)		Holm, Leroy/Pancho, Juan V./Herberger, James P./Plucknett, Donald L. (1979) (p. 303)
New Zealand New Zealand	New Zealand (country)	introduced invasive	Webb, C. J./Sykes, W. R./Garnock-Jones, P. J. (1988) (p. 1022) "Waste land, pastures, rubbish dumps".

Additional information:
Additional online information about Ranunculus muricatus is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Ranunculus muricatus as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Ranunculus muricatus may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Hafliger, Toni J./Wolf, Matthias. 1988. Dicot weeds, vol. 1. CIBA-GEIGY Ltd., Basle, Switzerland. 335 pp.

Holm, Leroy/Pancho, Juan V./Herberger, James P./Plucknett, Donald L. 1979. A geographical atlas of world weeds. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 391 pp.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2009. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

Wagner, Warren L./Herbst, Derral R./Sohmer, S. H. 1999. Manual of the flowering plants of Hawaii. Revised edition. Bernice P. Bishop Museum special publication. University of Hawai‘i Press/Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu. 1919 pp. (two volumes).

Webb, C. J./Sykes, W. R./Garnock-Jones, P. J. 1988. Flora of New Zealand, Volume IV: Naturalised pteridophytes, gymnosperms, dicotyledons. Botany Division, DSIR, Christchurch. 1365 pp.