| Ranunculus gmelinii DC. | |
| Publ. & Syn. | DC., Syst. Nat. 1: 303 (1817). Described from Siberia. |
| Notes | The nearly circumboreal-polar, diploid and tetraploid Ranunculus gmelinii and the North American hexaploid R. purshii may be treated either as parapatric races or as vicariant species (based on differences in morphology and ploidy levels). For a discussion of this species and its relations to R. hyperboreus, see Scott (1974b). A third taxon has been proposed: the North American R. limosus, treated by Scoggan (1978c) as a variety together with var. hookeri (D. Don) L.D. Benson (= subsp. purshii) and var. gmelinii. Its characters are such that might be associated with the reported hybridization between R. gmelinii and R. hyperboreus (Cayouette et al. 1997). Löve and Löve (1975a) assigned diploids to R. gmelinii s. str., tetraploids to R. limosus, and hexaploids to R. purshii, but this seems to be much too simple a solution, not taking the morphology into account and not considering that a large part of the tetraploid counts that should characterize the American R. limosus are from Russia. We enter two subspecies - subsp. gmelinii and subsp. purshii - and R. limosus is tentatively synonymized with subsp. gmelinii. |
| Chromosomes | (1) 32 (4x). - Canada. - Scott (1974a), see below. (2) 64 (8x). - Canada. - Mulligan and Porsild (1969b); Göpfert (1974); Löve and Löve (1982a, for "eremogenes"). The many Scott (1974a) chromosome counts of 2n = 32 from western and northwestern Canada (for Ranunculus sceleratus) demonstrate the absence of the constant difference in ploidy levels reported between North American and Eurasian plants by Löve and Löve (1975a). In this region, according to the map of Hultén and Fries (1986), the plants should be named subsp. multifidus and not subsp. sceleratus. |
| Geography | Nearly circumboreal-polar. |
| Parent taxon | Ranunculus L. |
| Child taxa |
Ranunculus gmelinii subsp. gmelinii Ranunculus gmelinii subsp. purshii (Richardson) Hultén |
| PAF ID | 361205 |