Contemporary Circumscription Compared with A Utah Flora 4th ed.

Bio430

Ranunculaceae

No differences

Key Features

Mostly perennial herbs or weakly woody vines that often (but not always) grow near water.  Leaves mostly alternate, deeply dissected, pinnate compound, or ternate; stipules lacking but petioles may be expanded or sheathing at the base.  Flowers appear singly or in racemes and panicles.  The flowers themselves are usually showy, and typically have 5 sepals, 5 petals (or petals 0) and many stamens and few to many free carpels that mature into a follicle, achene, or rarely a berry.  Sepals are often petaloid, especially when the petals are lacking or, as in monk’s hood, when the petals are modified into nectaries.  The many free carpels and stamens are considered primitive, and the family is an early diverging member of the eudicots; the floral traits combined with dissected leaves are among the key characters for recognizing this family.