Woodlands |
Grasslands | |
Glossary:
Plant Parts |
Flowers |
Leaves
Monocots | Liliaceae | Other Monocot spp. | | Dicots | Ranunculaceae | Other Dicot spp.
Ranunculaceae - Crowfoot or Buttercup Family
Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes woody; leaves usually alternate (opposite in Clematis and certain Ranunculus sp.), palmately compound, without stipules (exstipulate) with a sheathing leaf base. Flowers solitary or in racemes or cymes; bisexual (rarely unisexual); actinomorphic or zygomorphic. Floral series inserted on elongate receptacle, distinct, variable in number. Perianth usually petaloid, often not differentiated into true calyx and corolla; commonly yellow, white or blue. Stamens usually numerous, spirally inserted, Gynoecium apocarpous (carpels are separate from one another), of 3 to many carpels (rarely syncarpous or unicarpellate), the ovary superior. Fruit a follicle, achene, berry, or rarely a capsule. The majority of genera occur in cooler regions of the northern hemisphere. Twenty one genera are native to USA with 36 species native around Chicago. The family is the source of many important ornamentals, a few drug plants, and important toxic plants, e.g., Delphinium.
Featured species:
Actea pachypoda - white baneberry
Anemone patens var. wolfgangiana - pasque flower
Anemone virginiana - tall anemone
Anemonella thalictroides - rue anemone, windflower
Aquilegia canadensis - wild columbine
Caltha palustris - marsh marigold
Hydrastis canadensis - goldenseal
Ranunculus abortivus - small flowered buttercup
Ranunculus septentrionalis - swamp buttercup