Botanist Interior 43.1
2007 THE MICHIGAN BOTANIST 127 NOTEWORTHY COLLECTION WISCONSIN Ranunculus cymbalaria Pursh (Ranunculaceae). Alkali buttercup, seaside crow- foot. Previous knowledge. Seaside crowfoot is distributed heterogeneously through- out much of North America, but it is conspicuously absent in southeastern U.S. (USDA 2007). The halophile-like species flourishes on mud and gravel, particu- larly under brackish or alkaline conditions and limited competition. The floristic rating as a wetlands indicator for R. cymbalaria is OBL (Obligate Wetland). In Wisconsin, R. cymbalaria is one of the more diminutive and rare butter- cups. The creeping perennial forb is a state threatened species, known from just seven counties out of 72. With one inland exception, Walworth County, R. cym- balaria has been collected from six counties bordering the Great Lakes (Lake Michigan: Marinette, Brown, Sheboygan, Racine and Kenosha; Lake Superior: Douglas (Wisflora 2007). Historically, the species occurred in Walworth, Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Manitowoc counties (Brynildson 1982) and was characterized as “Very rare along Lake Michigan shore in Manitowoc, Racine and Kenosha counties, inland only at Lake Geneva in Walworth County where collected in 1885” (Fassett 1947). While R. cymbalaria grows locally in disturbed habitats today, it has been suggested that human-caused alterations of lakeshore habitats was responsible for elimination of any known original/relict populations in Wisconsin (Brynild- son 1982). Since the early 1980s, the number of documented Wisconsin records for R. cymbalaria has quadrupled. The plant is locally abundant in bare muddy places, on wet clays, gravels, or gravel-sand or gravel-cinder mixtures, growing in ditches and railroad rights-of-way, as well as in street-side bluegrass lawns and mowed grassy highway strips, notably in the City of Superior (Douglas County) (Pers.
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