About Ranunculus glacialis L.
Ranunculus glacialis, commonly known as glacier buttercup or glacier crowfoot, is a species in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It is a perennial herb that grows 5 to 10 centimeters tall, and may reach up to 20 centimeters in height. It often produces a single, relatively large flower that measures between 1.8 and 3.8 centimeters across. The flower has 5 petals that are initially white, and later turn pink or reddish. The undersides of its 5 sepals are covered in dense brown hairs. Its leaves are fleshy, shiny, deeply lobed, and divided into 3 leaflets. Analysis of plant material from Greenland has found that this species is diploid with a chromosome number of 2n = 16. Ranunculus glacialis is an Arctic-alpine species. Its distribution includes the high mountains of southern Europe, specifically the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, and Sierra Nevada. It also grows on the Scandinavian peninsula, in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Jan Mayen, Svalbard, eastern Greenland, and Finland. In Finland, the species is classified as endangered and is protected. It is recorded as one of the plant species that grows at the highest elevations in the Alps, and can flower at altitudes over 4,000 meters. It typically grows in fell-field and snow-bed sites, on the edges of meltwater streams.
