Stems branching, I to 2 feet long, or becoming longer in summer, ascending, the later branches procumbent and often rooting at the nodes. Roots simply fibrous; stems glabrous or pubescent. Leaves large, petioled, three-divided, the divisions mostly stalked, usually cuneate at the base, cleft into broad lobes; petioles of the lower leaves sometimes a foot long. Flowers bright yellow, 1 to 1 ¼ inches broad; petals five, obovate, twice as long as the spreading sepals. Stamens numerous. Fruit a globose or oval head of flat, strongly margined achenes, each achene tipped by the subulate, persistent, sword-shaped style.

Marshes, swamps, ditches and low meadows, New Brunswick to Manitoba, Georgia and Kansas. Flowering from April to July.

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 70

Swamp Or Marsh Buttercup - Ranunculus septentrionalis