Ranunculus marginatus var. trachycarpus (Fisch. & Mey.) Aznavour (1902: 297)

Ziffer-Berger, Jotham & Leschner - R, Hagar V., 2013, New interpretation of the Ranunculus cornutus-R. marginatus complex (Ranunculaceae), Phytotaxa 151 (1), pp. 35-43 : 42

Ranunculus marginatus var. trachycarpus (Fisch. & Mey.) Aznavour (1902: 297)

Basionym: Ranunculus trachycarpus Fischer & Meyer (1837: 46) . Type:— AZERBAIJAN. ‘ Talysch ad Lenkoran’, Meyer s.n. ( LE, n.v.) .

This variety differs from var. marginatus only by its fully tuberculate achenes that resemble the achenes of R. cornutus var. scandicinus ( Fig. 5 ). Its distribution roughly overlaps with that of R. m. var. marginatus , but extends into southern Turkey and Cyprus. We could not study Meyer's type specimen, be we were able to see much of the material studied by Davis for Flora of Turkey at E.

Contrary to Zohary (1966), Ranunculus marginatus does not occur in Israel and the Levant. We believe that due to the difficulty of accessing the type specimen and resemblance of achenes, Zohary misapplied the name R. marginatus . All of the material from Israel identified by Zohary as R. marginatus is confirmed by us to belong to R. cornutus var. scandicinus . Herbarium material from Missouri Botanical Garden herbarium (MO) indicates that Ranunculus marginatus var. trachycarpus is naturalized in temperate and subtropical North America.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Schematic drawing of Ranunculus achenes, side view: 1) R. marginatus var. trachycarpus from Turkey; 2) R. cornutus var. cornutus from Syria 3) R. cornutus var. scandicinus from Israel 4) R. cornutus var. leiocarpus from Azerbaijan. Author's illustration.