Ranunculus linguaL.

Greater Spearwortgreater spearwort

WFO wfo-0000463023 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ranunculus lingua, photographed by Марина Садыкова
fig. a Марина Садыкова, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-15 / obs. 150983071
Ranunculus lingua, photographed by Andre Hosper
fig. b Andre Hosper, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 142985388
Ranunculus lingua, photographed by Игорь Васильев
fig. c Игорь Васильев, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 138150749
Ranunculus lingua, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. d Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 91124783
Ranunculus lingua, photographed by Tomas Pocius
fig. e Tomas Pocius, CC0 1.0 / obs. 85474092
Ranunculus lingua, photographed by Edmundas Greimas
fig. f Edmundas Greimas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 86749045
Ranunculus lingua, photographed by Jon Mortin
fig. g Jon Mortin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 70531755
Ranunculus lingua, photographed by Stephen James McWilliam
fig. h Stephen James McWilliam, CC0 1.0 / obs. 48756208

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 45 botanical countries

Regions where Ranunculus lingua is native: Altay, Buryatiya, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AltayBuryatiyaIranKazakhstanKirgizstanKrasnoyarskNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaXinjiangPakistanWest HimalayaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine
Native distribution of Ranunculus lingua, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
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
Romania ROM
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
Iran IRN
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL
West Himalaya WHM

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 99 in flower of 106 examined

Peak flowering in Aug. Each bar is the share of Ranunculus lingua 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. 99 of 106 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. 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.

Also published as 4 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 lingua (L.) Fourr.
  • Ranunculus longifolius Lam.
  • Ranunculus salicifolius Stokes
  • Ranunculus schmidtii Schur

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.