Sagebrush Buttercup - Ranunculus glaberrimus

Sagebrush Buttercup
Ranunculus glaberrimus Hook.
Other names: early buttercup

Family: Ranunculaceae, Buttercup
Genus: Ranunculus

Description
General: perennial from a large cluster of rather fleshy roots
2-3 mm thick. Stems usually several, erect to trailing, 5-20
cm tall, simple or branched above, hairless to sparsely
stiff-hairy upward.

Leaves: mainly basal, the stipular base long-stiff-hairy,
the blade rather fleshy, elliptic to ovate or obovate, entire to
deeply 3-lobed, the base rounded to gradually tapered to a
stalk 1 to several times as long. Stem leaves 1 to several,
alternate, similar to the basal but shorter-stalked.

Flowers: 1 to several, on stalks up to 10 cm long.
Sepals 5, spreading, purplish-tinged, 5-8 mm long, hairless
to stiff-hairy, soon dropped. Petals 5 (6-8), yellow, 8-15 mm
long. Nectary scale wedge- to fan-shaped, 1.5-2 mm long,
the side edges joined most of the length, forming a deep
pocket, the upper edge usually hairy. Receptacle round,
hairless to finely short-hairy. Stamens 40-80.
Flowering time: April-early June.

Fruits: achenes, 30-150, each 1.5-2 mm long, obovate
in outline, about half as thick as broad, usually finely short-
hairy but otherwise smooth, the inner edge slightly winged.
Stylar beak straight, 0.5-0.8 mm. long.

Distribution
Mainly in ponderosa pine woodland and sagebrush desert,
in most parts of MT. Also from B.C. to n. CA, NM, and e.
to the Dakotas and NE.

Toxic and Medicinal Plant: see below.

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Contents
Identification
English Names Index
Scientific Names Index
Family Index

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Poisonous Properties:
All parts of buttercups are mildly poisonous when fresh, the toxins are destroyed by heat or by drying. The plant also has a strongly acrid juice that can cause blistering to the skin. Ingestion causes burning of the mouth, abdominal pain, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea. Skin redness, burning sensation, and blisters may follow contact with the sap. The toxic principle is protoanemonin, released from the glycoside ranunculin. However, larger quantities must be eaten for serious toxic effects to be experienced. The Okanagan-Colville Indians used dried or mashed, fresh and whole specimens of sagebrush buttercup placed on a piece of meat as poisoned bait for coyotes. They also rubbed flowers or whole plants on arrow points as a poison.

Medicinal Uses:
The Okanagan-Colville Indians used a poultice of mashed and dampened whole plants applied to sore joints and pains of any kind. The Thompson Indians made a poultice of mashed flowers used for warts, and considered the plant a skin irritant.