General description:- Herbs or rarely woody climbers.
Leaves:- Alternate, without stipules (exstipulate), rarely opposite or stipulate.
Flowers:- Usually hermaphrodite and radially symmetrical (actinomorphic), the sepals, petals and stamens inserted on the receptacle below and free from the ovary (hypogynous). Perianth petaloid or sepaloid, arranged in whorled (verticillate). Honey-leaves (petaloid structures bearing nectaries) often present, sometimes funnel-shaped (infundibuliform). Stamens numerous, usually spirally arranged, with the anthers facing and opening outwards, away from the centre of the flower (extrorse). Carpels 1 to many, usually free and spirally arranged.
Fruit:- Usually of 1 or more follicles or a head of achenes.
ADONIS
Leaves:- 1- to 3-pinnate with more or less linear segments.
Flowers:-Sepals 5(-8), often somewhat petaloid. Petals 3-20, glossy; nectaries absent.
Fruit:- Achenes numerous, rugose, forming an elongated head at maturity.
Key features:-
1) Leaves finely divided.
Sect. ADONIS
Flowers:- Petals 8 or fewer, usually red, though often yellow when dried. Anthers blackish-purple.
All species occur as weeds of cultivation or in similar open habitats; although not strictly only growing in soils with lime (calcicole), they are found mainly on base-rich soils.
ANEMONE
Stems:- Flowering stems with a whorl of 3(4) often partially united leaves.
Flowers:- Conspicuous, usually solitary. Perianth-segments 5-19, petaloid, imbricate. Honey-leaves absent.
Fruit:- Achenes numerous; style not elongated or feathery.
Key features:-
1) Bracts ± leaf-like and some distance below flower.
2) Styles not elongating in fruit.
3) Flowers without nectar-secreting staminodes.
CLEMATIS
General description:- Woody climbers or perennial herbs.
Leaves:- Opposite, simple, arranged in a whorl or cluster of three (ternate) or 1- or 2-pinnate. Perianth-segments 4 (rarely 5, 6 or 8), petaloid, meeting exactly but not overlapping (valvate). Honey-leaves absent. Petaloid staminodes sometimes present.
Flowers:- Style persistent, often long and plumose.
Fruit:- Achenes numerous.
Key features:-
1) Flowers actinomorphic.
2) Leaves opposite.
3) Perianth-segments valvate in bud.
Sect. CHEIROPSIS
Flowers:- White, yellowish or sometimes red-spotted, solitary in the leaf-axils; staminodes absent. Bracteoles united into a 2-lipped involucre. Style plumose in fruit.
CONSOLIDA
Flowers:- The 2 upper honey-leaves coalescent into a single structure (nectary), with a single spur; lateral honey-leaves absent; stamens in 5 spirally arranged series.
Fruit:- A single follicle.
Key features:-
1) Follicle 1.
DELPHINIUM
Leaves:- Usually about as wide as long, and deeply palmate, the lobes subdivided, the divisions extending almost to the midrib (pinnatisect).
Flowers:- An irregular flower (zygomorphic). Perianth-segments 5, the upper with a spur. Honey-leaves 4, free; the 2 upper (nectariferous) with spurs inserted into the spur of the uppermost perianth-segment, and with the limb exserted; the 2 lateral with a wide limb and a narrow claw. Stamens in 8 spirally arranged series.
Fruit:- Follicles 3(-5), free.
Key features:-
1) Upper perianth-segment not hooded.
2) Follicles 2 or more.
Sect. DELPHINIUM
General description:- Annuals or biennials.
Leaves:- Honey-leaves glabrous, the same colour as the perianth-segments, the upper winged, not clawed.
Fruit:- Seeds numerous.
Sect. STAPHISAGRIA
Flowers:- Honey-leaves hairless (glabrous), the same colour as the perianth-segments, the upper paler or yellowish, shortly clawed, unwinged.
Fruit:- Seeds few.
GARIDELLA
Leaves:- Usually 2- or 3-pinnatisect with linear segments.
Flowers:- Perianth-segments 5, petaloid, falling early (caducous). shorter than the honey-leaves. Honey-leaves 5, opposite to and much smaller than the perianth-segments. Styles c. 1 mm.
Fruit:- Follicles 2 or 3, united below, inflated; styles c. 1 mm.
Key features:-
1) Honey-leaves longer than the caducous perianth-segments.
MYOSURUS
General description:- Small annuals.
Flowers:- Solitary, small. Perianth-segments 5 or more. Honey-leaves 5-7, tubular, sometimes absent. Stamens few. Receptacle greatly elongated in fruit.
Fruit:- Achenes numerous.
Key features:-
1) Leaves alternate or verticillate, linear to spathulate, entire, all basal.
2) Perianth-segments imbricate in bud.
3) Flowers spurred.
4) Achenes in a long head.
NIGELLA
Leaves:- Usually 2- or 3-pinnatisect with linear segments.
Flowers:- Perianth-segments 5, petaloid, persistent for a time after full-flowering (anthesis). Honey-leaves 5, opposite to and much smaller than the perianth-segments. Styles long, patent or rarely erect.
Fruit:- 5 (rarely 10) partly or completely united follicles.
Key features:-
1) Perianth-segments or honey-leaves longer than stamens.
2) Infundibuliform or spathulate honey-leaves present.
3) Follicles united for at least 1/3 of their length.
4) Honey-leaves much shorter than the ± persistent perianth-segments.
RANUNCULUS
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes aquatic.
Flowers:- Solitary or in cymose panicles. Perianth-segments (3-)5(-7). Honey-leaves (0-)5(-12), usually deciduous, petaloid, yellow or white, rarely red or purple.
Fruit:- Achenes numerous, usually with a persistent glabrous style.
Key features:-
1) Leaves simple or palmately divided.
Subgen. BATRACHIUM
General description:- Aquatic plants.
Leaves:- All with a broad lamina (laminate) or all divided into capillary segments (capillary), or of both kinds.
Flowers:- Honey-leaves white, sometimes with yellow claw.
Fruit:- Achenes transversely wrinkled (rugose).
Hybrids occur between most species in the subgenus.
Sect. ECHINELLA
Flowers:- Nectary covered by an entire, truncate scale, attached laterally or free to base.
Fruit:- Achenes beaked, strongly bordered and with spines, hooked hairs or tubercles.
Subgen. RANUNCULUS
Usually terrestrial plants. Leaves various but very rarely divided into capillary segments. Flowers yellow or white, rarely red or purple. Achenes very rarely transversely rugose.
Sect. MICRANTHUS
Roots:- Fibrous.
Leaves:- All simple.
Flowers:- Honey-leaves usually yellow, caducous. Receptacle glabrous.flowers sessile or nearly so, not more than 3 mm in diam, yellow.
Fruit:- Achenes slightly compressed; tuberculate; beak ½ as long to as long as the achene.
Sect. PHYSOPHYLLUM
Stock:- Roots tuberous.
Leaves:- All basal.
Flower:- Receptacle ovoid.
Fruit:- Achenes inflated.
Sect. FICARIA
Stock:- Some roots tuberous, some fibrous.
Leaves:- Broadly ovate, cordate.
Flowers:- Yellow. Sepals 3. Honey-leaves 8-12.
Fruit:- Achenes ovoid, scarcely compressed, keeled; beak minute.
Sect. FLAMMULA
Roots:- Fibrous.
Leaves:- All simple.
Flowers:- Honey-leaves usually yellow, falling early (caducous). Receptacle glabrous.
Fruit:- Achenes slightly compressed; beak very short.
Sect. RANUNCULASTRUM
Roots of 2 sorts, some tuberous and some fibrous. Achenes compressed, keeled. Receptacle elongating in fruit and becoming more or less cylindrical.
Sect. THORA
1) Roots tuberous.
2) Leaves broader than long.
3) Receptacle ovoid.
4) Achenes scarcely compressed, strongly veined.