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Creeping Spearwort

Creeping Spearwort

Ranunculus reptans

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How common: Very common

Creeping Spearwort is a tiny, creeping buttercup that hugs the water’s edge. It runs along gravelly or sandy shores of lakes, slow rivers and sheltered brackish bays, often rooting at each joint and even growing underwater. It bears small yellow flowers in summer. All parts are poisonous.

Did you know?

  • Its runners root at nearly every joint, helping it spread along shifting shorelines.
  • It often hybridises with Lesser Spearwort (Ranunculus flammula) where they grow together.

About the species

Identification

Very low, creeping plant 2–6 cm tall but 5–40 cm long. Stems slender, trailing and often rooting at many joints; the spaces between joints are curved. Leaves very narrow (1–3 mm), thread-like with smooth edges, often lacking any broader tip. Single yellow flowers on short grooved stalks, about 5–10 mm across, usually with five petals. Tiny hard seeds follow, each with a small curved tip. Beware: poisonous. Differs from Lesser Spearwort by being much lower and more creeping, with much narrower leaves. Flowers in Finland from July to September.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

shore

Toxicity

A poisonous plant – do not taste it. Source: HUS Poison Information Centre (Finland), tel. 0800 147 111.

Flowering

Jul–Sep

About the habitat

Open, stony, gravelly or sandy shores of lakes and rivers, sheltered low-salinity bays, and man-made shores like gravel pits, usually at the waterline; can also grow submerged in shallow water, ditches and pools. Occurs throughout Finland.

Sources

Photo: Макар Михайлов, CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6352283739

Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Sisävedet: humusjärvet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37920

Text: Pinkka: Kasvitieteen retkeily Lammille - Pähkinärinne ja lehtokasvillisuutta Pääjärven rannalla, Linnavuoren lehtorinne, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37920

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rantaleinikki

See also