Ranunculus muricatusL.

spinyfruit buttercup

WFO wfo-0000462855 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ranunculus muricatus, photographed by Jeff Harter
fig. a Jeff Harter, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-18 / obs. 198693385

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 43 botanical countries

Regions where Ranunculus muricatus is native: Algeria, Canary Is., Egypt, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Albania, Baleares, Bulgaria, Corse, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaEgyptLibyaMoroccoTunisiaAfghanistanCyprusEast Aegean Is.Gulf StatesIranIraqKazakhstanLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusOmanPalestineSaudi ArabiaTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanIndiaPakistanWest HimalayaAlbaniaBulgariaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiKrymNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalRomaniaSiciliaSpainTürkiye-in-Europe Canary Is.MadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Ranunculus muricatus, 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
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Cyprus CYP
East Aegean Is. EAI
Gulf States GST
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kazakhstan KAZ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Oman OMA
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
Albania ALB EUROPE
Baleares BAL
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Canary Is. CNY
Egypt EGY
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Pakistan PAK
West Himalaya WHM

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 480 in flower of 536 examined

Proportion of examined Ranunculus muricatus in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 4 4 too few examined
Feb 22 24 92% 74% to 98%
Mar 71 78 91% 83% to 96%
Apr 163 187 87% 82% to 91%
May 73 82 89% 80% to 94%
Jun 13 14 93% 69% to 99%
Jul 1 1 too few examined
Aug 13 19 68% 46% to 85%
Sep 40 40 100% 91% to 100%
Oct 59 63 94% 85% to 98%
Nov 20 21 95% 77% to 99%
Dec 1 3 too few examined

Peak flowering in Sep. Each bar is the share of Ranunculus muricatus 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. 480 of 536 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 3 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 9 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.

  • Notophilus muricatus (L.) Fourr.
  • Ranunculus cabulicus Boiss.
  • Ranunculus coronatus Ehrenb. ex Boiss.
  • Ranunculus graecus Griseb.
  • Ranunculus lavrentiadis Papan. & Kokkini
  • Ranunculus muricatus var. brasilianus DC.
  • Ranunculus muricatus var. marginatus Reiche
  • Ranunculus palaris Phil.
  • Ranunculus ventricosus Vent.

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.