About Ranunculus muricatus L.
Ranunculus muricatus is a species of buttercup, with the common names rough-fruited buttercup and spinyfruit buttercup. It is native to Europe, and has been introduced to many other regions across the globe, including parts of Africa, Australia, and both the western and eastern United States. In these introduced areas, it grows as an agricultural and roadside weed. It grows in wet habitats, such as irrigation ditches. This plant is an annual herb, or sometimes a biennial herb. It produces a mostly hairless stem that can reach up to half a meter in length, and may grow either upright or decumbent along the ground. Its leaf blades are a few centimetres long, deeply divided into three lobes, or split fully into three separate leaflets. The leaves range from hairless to hairy in texture, and are borne at the tips of long petioles. Each flower has five shiny yellow petals under 1 centimetre (0.4 in) long, arranged around a lobed central receptacle covered with many stamens and pistils. Its fruit is a spiny achene, and these achenes grow in a spherical cluster holding 10 to 20 individual fruits.
