General:
Perennial herb from fibrous root mass; stems erect, 15-40 cm tall, soft-hairy or sometimes becoming smooth, hollow.
Leaves:
Basal leaves generally elongate heart-shaped, generally undivided, or innermost 3- to 5-parted, 2-7 cm long, 2-4.5 cm wide, deeply toothed to shallowly lobed and narrowly toothed, soft-hairy, tips rounded to pointed, the stalks stout, 2-12 cm long; stem leaves alternate, shorter-stalked, more deeply lobed, transitional to the unstalked, 5- to 7-parted bracts.
Flowers:
Inflorescence a 1- to 5-flowered cyme; flower stalks to 14 cm long, soft-hairy; receptacle densely short-hairy; petals (0) 5-10, distinct, yellow, 6-13 mm long, 4-13 mm wide, nectary on upper surface, about 1 mm long, the upper edge of scale fringed with long hairs; sepals 5, spreading, yellowish, 5-8 mm long, 3-7 mm wide, soft-hairy; stamens 35-70; pistils 20-100.
Fruits:
Achenes, 20 to 100 in a globe- to egg-shaped head 5-16 mm long, 5-9 mm wide, the achenes egg-shaped, 1.8-2.2 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, somewhat flattened, finely and densely short-hairy, often netted; beaks slender, curved or straight, 0.6-1.2 mm long.
If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
Illustration Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Ranunculus cardiophyllus var. cardiophyllus
Ranunculus cardiophyllus var. coloradensis L.D. Benson
Ranunculus cardiophyllus var. subsagittatus (A. Gray) L.D. Benson
Ranunculus cardiophyllus var. typicus L.D. Benson
Ranunculus pedatifidus var. cardiophyllus