Ranunculus nivalis : Snow Buttercup

Scientific Name:

Kingdom: Plantae

Division:

• Tracheophyta (vascular)
• Spermatophyta (seed bearing)
Angiospermae (enclosed seed)

Class: Dicoteldonae (two seed-leaves)

Family: Ranunculaceae (Crowfoot/Buttercup Family)

Genera: Ranunculus (Buttercup) (diminutive of Lat. rana= a little frog; alluding to the marsh habitats of many species)

Species: nivalis (Lat. for snowy; referring to the northern range of the species)

English Name(s):

Snow Buttercup, Snow Crowfoot

First Nation Names:

Structure:

• Plant herbaceous (not woody) with colourless acrid (bitter) juice.
• Plant tufted, essentailly glabrous (hairless).
• Stems few to several, slender, erect, 5-10cm high, much elongated in fruit, 1 to 3 leaved.

Leaves:

• Basal leaves petioled (stalked).
• Blades reniform in shape, deeply 3-lobed, each lobe divided half-way to leaf base.

Reproductive Parts:

• Flowers 1.5-2.5cm in diameter, perfect (bisexual) and of regular symmetry.
• Sepals 5, densely brownish-black villous (wooly) on the back.
• Petals 5, dark yellow, twice as long as the sepals.
• Ovaries superior (above floral parts).

Seed:

• Fruiting head of achenes ovoid to short-cylindrical in shape.
• Recepticle naked or with a tuft of dark hairs at top.
• Achenes 1.5-2.0mm long, with a short straight beak.

Not to Be Confused With:

• Ranunculus sulphureus (Sulphur Buttercup) which can be distinuished by its recepticle (flower base) having reddish brown hairs.
• Ranunculus eschscholtzii (?? Buttercup) which can be distinguished by its sepals having sparse yellowish pubescence (hiars).

Physiology:

Life Cycle:

• Perennial

Seasonal Cycle:

• plants deciduous from rootstock.
• Blooms in early July.

Animal Uses:

• Many diferent sorts of nectar eating insects visit the flowers. They are attracted by the bright yellow flowers.

Habitat:

• In wet moss by brooks and in hrebmats.
• Often near the edge of melting snowbanks.

Modern:

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Traditional Gwich'in:

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Traditional Other:

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