Plant usually hairy when young, sometimes merely appressed-pubescent or glabrate when old; stems ascending or spreading, usually several from a thickened, fibrous, perennial root; at flowering time the stems only a few inches long, later becoming 1 to 2 feet long, but not stoloniferous. Leaves pinnately three to five divided, the divisions ovate, oblong or obovate, narrowed or cuneate at the base, sharply cleft or lobed, usually thin; flowers one-half to 1½ inches broad; petals usually five, oblong, about twice as long as the spreading sepals and entire or sometimes slightly notched at the apex; achenes of fruit oval, lenticular, narrowly margined, abruptly tipped by a subulate style of about one-half their length.

In dry woods and thickets, Vermont and Ontario to North Dakota, south to Georgia and Arkansas. Flowering from March to May.

Plate 60

B. Hispid Buttercup - Ranunculus hispidus