Family |
Ranunculaceae
Ranunculus paludosus
Poir.
Ranunculus paludosus Poir.
First published in Voy. Barbarie 2: 184 (1789).
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, p. 39; Pl. XIV, fig. 3; treatment including R. flabellatus)
Description
Morphology: In Mouterde’s regional treatment: perennial with short, thickly clustered tuberous roots and a characteristic dense network of fibres around the crown. Stems usually simple, sometimes slightly branched, 10–40 cm tall, with short soft hairs. Basal leaves variable: outer leaves entire or little divided, others cut into numerous narrow, more or less stalked segments; sometimes all basal leaves are deeply divided. Stem leaves short, divided into linear strips. Sepals green, appressed or spreading, sometimes slightly reflexed. Petals broad and relatively large. Stamens yellow, with long filaments. Numerous achenes form an oblong or cylindrical head; they are glabrous or slightly hairy, finely dotted, strongly margined and keeled, tapering into a triangular or awl-shaped beak that is straight or somewhat curved, often hooked. This account follows Mouterde’s broader circumscription; see the taxonomic note.
Flowering and habitat
Flowering: March–April, according to Mouterde’s regional treatment.
Habitat and elevation: Grassy places, more or less moist. Mouterde gives no numerical elevation range in this account.
Distribution
Historical Lebanese localities: Tripoli; Beit Méri; Araya; Qrayé; Yahchouche; Chahtoul; Bikfaya; Ghazir; Abey; Jezzine; Nahr Hasbani; Rachaya; Hasbaya; Machghara; Zahlé; Ksara. These records follow Mouterde’s treatment including R. flabellatus and have not been individually reassessed under the current separation.
Historical Syrian localities: Safita; Massiaf; Jabal Mattai; Jdeidat-Yabous; Ouadi el-Qarn; Kurd Dagh; Aleppo; Tell Aqibrin; Jebel Druze; Kafer; west of Homs; Haddidi. These records likewise belong to Mouterde’s broader treatment.
Recorded locations: Kfertay; Bqaatouta.
Native range: Channel Islands to the Mediterranean, according to POWO’s range summary. Its native distribution list comprises Algeria, Bulgaria, Corsica, Cyprus, the East Aegean Islands, France, Greece, Italy, Crete, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Morocco, the northwestern Balkan Peninsula, Palestine, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, Spain, Tunisia, Türkiye and European Türkiye.
⚠️ Taxonomic note:
The name Ranunculus paludosus Poir. is retained here. Mouterde lists R. flabellatus Desf. as its synonym and also cites R. chaerophyllos as a historically misapplied name, not R. chaerophyllos L. Current POWO accepts R. paludosus and R. flabellatus as separate species; it assigns R. paludosus subsp. flabellatus (Desf.) Dobignard to the latter. Consequently, Mouterde’s morphology, flowering and regional records are presented here as his historical treatment rather than as a verified reassignment of every specimen to the narrower modern R. paludosus. The current POWO records list Lebanon-Syria for both species, so geography alone cannot resolve their identification.