''Ranunculus flammula'', the lesser spearwort, greater creeping spearwort or banewort, is a species of

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

plants in the genus ''

Ranunculus ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about almost 1700 to more than 1800 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed in Europe ...

'' (buttercup), growing in damp places throughout the

Boreal Kingdom The Boreal Kingdom or Holarctic Kingdom (Holarctis) is a floristic kingdom identified by botanist Ronald Good (and later by Armen Takhtajan), which includes the temperate to Arctic portions of North America and Eurasia. Its flora is inherited f ...

. It flowers June/July. ''Ranunculus flammula'' is poisonous. It is very closely related to '' R. reptans'', which is distinguished by prostrate and more slender stems, narrower leaves and smaller flowers and is sometimes included within ''R. flammula''

sensu lato ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

as a variety (''R. flammula'' var. ''reptans'' (L.) E. Meyer). In addition to other forms of pollination, this plant is adapted to rain-

pollination Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds ...

Gallery

Image:RanunculusFlammula4.jpg Image:ranunculus_flammula.jpeg Image:RanunculusFlammula.jpg File:Ranunculus flammula Prague 2012 2.jpg

Illustrations

Image:Ranunculus flammula - Sturm.png, ''Ranunculus flammula''
Illustration in:
Jakob Sturm: ''"Deutschlands Flora in Abbildungen"'',
Stuttgart (1796) Image:Ranunculus flammula Sturm46.jpg, ''Ranunculus flammula'' var ''reptans''
Illustration in:
Jakob Sturm: ''"Deutschlands Flora in Abbildungen"'',
Stuttgart (1796) Image:Nsr-slika-029.png, Žgoča zlatica. (''Ranúnculus Flámmula''.)
Illustration #29 in: Martin Cilenšek: '' Naše škodljive rastline'', Celovec (1892)

References

External links

flammula ''Flammula'' is a dark brown-spored genus of mushrooms that cause a decay of trees, on whose bases they often fruit, forming clusters of yellowish brown mushrooms. Taxonomy For nearly a century, ''Flammula'' was considered to be a synonym of ''P ...

Flora of Asia Flora of Europe Flora of North America Flora of Norway Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{ranunculales-stub