Ranunculus pedatif idus 

 Northern buttercup 



A. CLASSIFICATION 



1. SCIENTIFIC NAME: Ranunculus pedatif idus 



2. COMMON NAME: Northern buttercup 



3. FAMILY: Ranunculaceae (Buttercup Family) 



4. GENUS: Ranunculus (Buttercup) 



5. SPECIES: R. pedatif idus (Lat. pedat referring to foot; as in the 

 birdsfoot-shaped outline of the basal leaves) 



It is interesting to note that R. cardiophyllus is considered to 

 be a variety of R. pedatif idus by Scoggan (1978) , as mentioned on 

 preceding pages. The presence of R. cardiophyllus and R. 

 pedatif idus in the Sweetgrass Hills is believed to represent the 

 only area in the United States where distribution of these 

 related taxa overlaps. 



B. PRESENT LEGAL OR OTHER FORMAL STATUS 



1. FEDERAL STATUS 



a. U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE: None 



b. U.S. BUREAU OF LAND MANAGMENT: None 



c. U.S. FOREST SERVICE: None 



2. STATE: Ranunculus pedatif idus is currently ranked critically 



imperiled in the state (SI) based on three records from 

 three counties. One of the records is historic and 

 unrelocatable; the Sweetgrass Hills site represents a small, 

 vulnerable population. 



C. DESCRIPTION 



1. GENERAL NONTECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Terrestrial, upright 



herbaceous perennial with relatively conspicuous yellow flowers 

 with a shiny-looking petals, usually one per stem, occasionally 

 more. The simple basal leaf (ves) has deeply-lobed margins 

 tracing a palmate outline (Figure 11) . It is necessary to 

 consider technical achene and nectary scale features to make 

 positive identification. 



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