About Ranunculus L.
Ranunculus lanuginosus, commonly called wooly buttercup, is a herbaceous perennial buttercup that grows to between 30 and 80 centimetres tall. It typically grows upright and spreading, with a round, thick, hollow stem covered in a dense layer of trichomes. Its basal leaves have long leafstalks, are palmately lobed, and feature five ovate, hirsute leaf segments with double serrated margins. Upper stem leaves are sessile, palmately lobed, and have wide segments. Most leaves grow to 12 centimetres long and 8 centimetres wide. This species is entomophilous, and flowers between May and August. Its flowers are yellow to orange with a darker central area, with five floral parts in both the corolla and calyx. Each flower measures 2 to 2.5 centimetres across, and the calyx is made up of hairy sepals. The fruit it produces is an achene, which is hairless, laterally compressed, and ends in a long, curved rostrum. Like many other buttercups, wooly buttercup is toxic. Ranunculus lanuginosus is a European plant species native to middle and southern Europe, as well as the Caucasus. It is native to Albania, Austria, the Baltic States, Bulgaria, Corsica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Sardinia, Sicily, Switzerland, European Turkey, Ukraine, and former Yugoslavian countries. This relatively common buttercup grows in a variety of shaded forests with dense undergrowth, and other similar shaded, humid locations. It is classified as a hemicryptophyte under the Raunkiær system. It is primarily a lowland species, and only rarely grows in the subalpine zone, reaching a maximum elevation of around 1,400 metres.
