154 



RANUNCULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 



CURSED CROWFOOT 

 Ranunculus sceleratus, L. 



Other English names: Celery-leaved Crowfoot, Ditch Crowfoot, 



Bog Buttercup. 



Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: May to August. 

 Seed-time: June to October. 

 Range : New Brunswick to Minnesota, southward to Florida ; also 



in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, and Utah. Native to Europe 



and Asia. 

 Habitat : Wet meadows, low pastures, along ditches and in bogs. 



Cattle ordinarily are careful to reject all Buttercups, because 

 of their acrid and poisonous juices, but when 

 first turned out to grass in the spring they 

 are likely to graze so eagerly as to get some 

 of the young leaves of this one, which causes 

 an inflammation of mouths and digestive 

 tracts, sometimes so severe as to be fatal. 

 Stem stout, sometimes over an inch thick 

 at the base, smooth, hollow, much-branched, 

 six inches to two feet in height. The alter- 

 nate leaves are also very smooth and rather 

 thick, the basal ones rounded heart-shape in 

 outline, but deeply three- to five-lobed, 

 bluntly toothed or entire, with long, broad, 

 flattened petioles ; stem-leaves also three- 

 parted, but the lobes are more slender, ap- 

 proaching to wedge-shape, those near the 

 top becoming linear. Flowers small, the five 

 pale yellow petals scarcely exceeding the 

 calyx; stamens and styles numerous. Ra- 

 nunculus fruits are composed of many one- 

 seeded carpels tipped by more or less elon- 

 gated styles ; in this species the heads are 

 oblong, the length nearly thrice the thick- 



, ness, each one closely set with many minute, 



FIG. 104. Cursed , , , , , . . 



Crowfoot (Ranuncu- short-beaked carpels, each containing one 



lus sceleratus). x i. oval, flattened, dull brown seed. 



