Syn.: Ranunculus brevifolius subsp. pindicus E. Mayer
Family: Ranunculaceae Juss.

Ranunculus brevifolius

Distribution: Central Italy, western and southern part of the Balkans (including Crete) and southwestern Turkey.

Ecology: It grows in damp, stabilized limestone screes in altitudes (1300–)1800–2600(–2900). Flowering soon after the snow has melted (early May to mid-July).

Ranunculus brevifolius

Description: A glabrous, perennial herb with an oblique rhizome 1–4 cm, sometimes fibrous at apex, bearing long, fleshy, fusiform roots, 1.5–3 mm thick. Basal leaves 2–8 per flowering stem, long-petiolate, appearing with the flowers or somewhat later; blade variable but usually reniform, 15–40 mm wide, somewhat fleshy, shallowly 3-lobed into entire or crenate lobes, glaucous or sometimes green. Flowering stem ascending often curved, 5–15 cm, with a single (rarely 2) entire or trisect leaf at or above the middle, unbranched, 1-flowered. Sepals spreading, elliptical, c. 2/3 as long as petals, with a purplish tinge. Petals 8–12 mm, obovate, obtuse, yellow. Receptacle glabrous. Head of achenes broadly ovoid or spherical. Achenes 8–20, not or slightly compressed, body of achene 3–4 mm, smooth, beak 1–1.5 mm, slender, circinate.

Ranunculus brevifolius
Ranunculus brevifolius
Ranunculus brevifolius
Ranunculus brevifolius
Ranunculus brevifolius

These images were taken in Albania, Mali i Nemërçkës (June 30 and July 1, 2013).