Flora-Fauna

Ranunculus ficaria subsp. ficariiformis Rouy & Foucaud

(First published in Fl. France 1: 73 (1893); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. XII nº 3; 1970, as Ficaria grandiflora Robert, syn. Ranunculus ficaria L. subsp. ficariiformis Rouy & Foucaud) (Plants of the World Online)

• Life-form & habit : Glabrous, green perennial geophyte, uni- or pluricaulous, 10–40 cm tall; stock short and naked, with fascicled roots, some tuberous, cylindrical or club-shaped, others slender and fibrous. Stems ascending, simple or branched, glabrous or with sparse hairs, fleshy.

• Leaves : Leaves somewhat thick, cordate or truncate at the base, ovate, entire or more rarely weakly sinuate along the margin.

• Inflorescence & flowers : Flowers with 3 scarious, concave, yellowish-white sepals and 8–12 shiny yellow ovate-elliptic petals, 2–3 times as long as the calyx and reaching up to 2 cm long; nectary with an obovate, truncate scale; stamens exceeding the carpels, with yellow linear anthers.

• Fruit : Achenes forming a small hemispherical fruiting head; individual achenes obovate-subglobose, up to 2 mm, shortly hispid.

• Phenology : Flowers from January to April, and later in mountain localities.

• Habitat & elevation : Very humid places; recorded from the coastal belt, lower mountain belt, high mountain sites around 2000 m, the eastern slope of Lebanon and Mediterranean continental localities.

• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from Saïda, Beyrouth, Jounié, Tripoli, Qrayé, Ghazir, Dlepta, Lahfed, Jabal Cha‘ara above Zahlé around 2000 m, near Hosn Niha, Zahlé and Baalbeck.

• Native range : Algeria, Baleares, Canary Is., Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Morocco, NW. Balkan Pen., Palestine, Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Tunisia, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine.

• Introduced range : Great Britain, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas.

• Diagnostic remarks : Treated by Mouterde under Ficaria grandiflora Robert, with Ranunculus ficaria subsp. ficariiformis Rouy & Foucaud cited in synonymy. POWO currently accepts Ranunculus ficaria subsp. ficariiformis Rouy & Foucaud. It is distinguished from Ranunculus ficarioides by its larger flowers, 1.5–3 cm in diameter, entire or only weakly sinuate leaves, and shortly hispid achenes; R. ficarioides has smaller flowers, distinctly and regularly lobed leaves, and entirely glabrous achenes. (Plants of the World Online)