Ranunculus auricomus


Ranunculus auricomus, known as goldilocks buttercup or Greenland buttercup, is a perennial species of buttercup native to Eurasia. It is a calcicole typically found in moist woods and at the margins of woods. It is apomictic, and several hundred agamospecies have been recognised.

Description

Ranunculus auricomus is a short, slightly hairy perennial herb which attains a height of about, the basal leaves variably three-lobed. The stem leaves are few and deeply divided into 3-5 narrow segments giving the plant a filiform appearance. The flowers are frequently imperfect or distorted. They are bright yellow, the petals fall easily or absent.

Distribution

Ranunculus auricomus is native to northern Europe and western Asia, approximately from latitudes 43 to 71 degrees and from western Ireland to the Ural Mountains. In Britain it is generally a lowland species but has been recorded at on Aonach Beag. It is common in England and southern Scotland but becomes increasingly uncommon in the north and west, so much so that, for example, it is named in the description of the Nature Reserve of Coed Garnllwyd in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Habitat and ecology

Ranunculus auricomus is a perennial herb which is characteristic of deciduous woodland growing over base rich soils such as those underlain by chalk or limestone. In addition it has been recorded growing among scrub, along roadsides and in churchyards, and infrequently on open moorland in locations which are sheltered by boulders and on sheltered mountain ledges. Flowering starts in April and peaks at the end of may and start of June, although these flowers attract pollinating insects the plant is incapable of being pollinated and reproduces by apomixis, the seeds developing from unfertilised ova.

Taxonomy

Ranunculus auricomus is a species aggregation in which several hundred agamospecies, that is species which lack gametes, have been found with possibly a hundred or so in Britain alone.