Images: ©Jouko Lehmuskallio
Great Spearwort
Ranunculus lingua
- Family: Buttercup Family – Ranunculaceae
- Name also: Greater Spearwort.
- Growing form: Perennial herb.
- Height: 50–120 cm (20–47 in.). Long creeping rootstock. Stem erect, scarcely-branched, hairy over water surface.
- Flower: Regular (actinomorphic), ca. 3–3.5 cm (1.2–1.4 in.) across. Petals 5, yellow, with rounded or notched apex. Sepals 5 broad, blunt, and with broad membranous margins. Stamens numerous, ca. 6 mm long. Free carpels many.
- Leaves: Basal leaves with hairy stalks, withering before flowering. Blade elongated ovate, often slightly hairy and with cordate base. Stem leaves almost stalkless, narrow-based, narrowly elliptic, with toothed or entire margins, and hairy on both sides, hairs along the surface.
- Fruit: An oval, 2–2,5 mm (0.08–0.1 in.) long, flattened, somewhat winged achene with a slightly curved tip.
- Habitat: Shallow waters in shores of lakes, along rivers and streams, and rarely in flooded fens.
- Flowering time: July–August.
The great spearwort is a poisonous perennial of moving waters. It is the tallest and most handsome of the Finnish Ranunculus species. It is a plant of clear waters, and suffers from increased turbidity and muddiness.
The great spearwort does not produce seeds in abundance, but spreads fairly efficiently by means of axillary bulbils and runners growing up to half a metre long. In Finland it is most common in the lake district.
