This section is from the book "Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers", by Caroline A. Creevey. Also available from Amazon: Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers.
Family, Crowfoot. Color, yellow. Petals, 5 to 8, surrounding a head of achenes. The flowers are borne upon low scapes, either solitary or several, 1 to 6 inches high. A nectar-bearing pit and scale are found at the base of each petal, as in nearly all buttercups. Leaves, clustered at the root, round or heart-shaped, with wavy margins, long-petioled, somewhat fleshy. They also grow on the joints of runners, by which the plant propagates itself. June to August.
This plant may grow quite in water, and upon the banks of lakes and slow-moving streams from Maine to New Jersey. Also found beside the Great Lakes, and inland, in alkaline soil.
 
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