3611-14 The Ranunculus group of genera
Notes: Numerous attempts have been made to subdivide the large (ca. 600 species) and polymorphic genus Ranunculus s. lat. The most often suggested segregate genera in the northern regions are Batrachium, Beckwithia, Coptidium, Ficaria, Cyrtorhyncha or Halerpestes, and Oxygraphis. Molecular studies utilizing nrDNA and cpDNA (Hörandl et al. 2005; Paun et al. 2005) have included members of these groups except for Oxygraphis (see below). In these studies, Batrachium nested in the core Ranunculus clade close to, e.g., R. hyperboreus and R. gmelinii (sect. Xanthobatrachium). We include Batrachium in Ranunculus. Beckwithia as recently circumscribed was polyphyletic. The type species, the non-arctic Cordilleran B. andersonii, was a distinct segregate, whereas the two other species assigned to this genus, B. glacialis and B. chamissonis, nested in the core Ranunculus clade together with some white-flowered European alpine species. We include those two species in Ranunculus. Coptidium and Halerpestes were supported as genera as was the non-arctic Ficaria.
Higher Taxa
- Ranunculaceae [36,family]