Ranunculus flammulaL.

Lesser Spearwortgreater creeping spearwortlesser spearwort

WFO wfo-0000460525 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ranunculus flammula, photographed by Lee
fig. a Lee, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-27 / obs. 201038003

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 78 botanical countries

Regions where Ranunculus flammula is native: Algeria, Azores, Madeira, Morocco, Altay, Kazakhstan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Newfoundland, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Québec, Saskatchewan, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming AlgeriaMoroccoAltayKazakhstanTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraineAlaskaAlbertaArizonaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutIdahoMaineManitobaMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNevadaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew MexicoNew YorkNewfoundlandNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesNova ScotiaOntarioOregonPennsylvaniaPrince Edward I.QuébecSaskatchewanUtahVermontWashingtonWisconsinWyoming AzoresMadeiraFøroyarSardegna
Native distribution of Ranunculus flammula, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Arizona ARI
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Connecticut CNT
Idaho IDA
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
Nevada NEV
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Nova Scotia NSC
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Pennsylvania PEN
Prince Edward I. PEI
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
Utah UTA
Vermont VER
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Kazakhstan KAZ
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 606 in flower of 658 examined

Proportion of examined Ranunculus flammula in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 12 12 100% 76% to 100%
Feb 11 11 100% 74% to 100%
Mar 9 15 60% 36% to 80%
Apr 10 24 42% 24% to 61%
May 56 67 84% 73% to 91%
Jun 123 126 98% 93% to 99%
Jul 150 153 98% 94% to 99%
Aug 123 129 95% 90% to 98%
Sep 50 54 93% 82% to 97%
Oct 28 32 88% 72% to 95%
Nov 15 16 94% 72% to 99%
Dec 19 19 100% 83% to 100%

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Ranunculus flammula observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 606 of 658 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,921 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -13.0 °C -1.7 °C 5.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 15.8 °C 21.6 °C 24.8 °C
Annual rainfall 615 mm 882 mm 2,244 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 88 mm 159 mm 348 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,921 research-grade observations of Ranunculus flammula that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 16 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Flammula ranunculus Fourr.
  • Ranunculus caespititius Dumort.
  • Ranunculus filiformis var. ovalis Bigelow
  • Ranunculus flammula f. pilosa Gamisans
  • Ranunculus flammula var. angustifolius Wallr.
  • Ranunculus flammula var. flammula
  • Ranunculus flammula var. samolifolius (Greene) L.D.Benson
  • Ranunculus flammula var. strigulosus (Freyn) M.Peck
  • Ranunculus flammula var. unalaschensis Ledeb.
  • Ranunculus flammula var. varians Blank.
  • Ranunculus idionanthus Gand.
  • Ranunculus reptans var. ovalis (Bigelow) Torr. & A.Gray
  • Ranunculus reptans var. samolifolius (Greene) L.D.Benson
  • Ranunculus samolifolius Greene
  • Ranunculus scoticus E.S.Marshall
  • Ranunculus telonensis Robert ex Biria

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.