Ranunculus baudotii

Ranunculus baudotii, called brackish water-crowfoot, belongs to the buttercup family. True to its name, it usually grows near the coast, in pools and ditches of salt marshes that get a little salty from sea spray. It also turns up inland wherever there’s some salt influence. The plant isn’t edible and has some economic uses, but it’s mainly valued for conservation and as a sign of habitat that hasn’t been heavily farmed.

This aquatic plant can be an annual or perennial, with stems reaching up to 3 meters long. It lives underwater but becomes terrestrial when its habitat dries out in summer. The submerged leaves are threadlike, typically around 5 centimeters long (sometimes up to 15), and are noticeably shorter than the stem section above them. The floating and land leaves are deeply three-lobed, up to 1 centimeter long and 2.5 centimeters wide. All leaves grow alternately along the stem, with leaf stalks up to about 8 centimeters long (or 20 centimeters for some submerged leaves). At the base of each leaf stalk is a small, oval stipule.

Flowering happens from May to September in Northern Europe. Each flower sits alone on a long stalk that grows opposite a leaf—these stalks can be up to ten times longer than the leaf stalk. The five petals are white with a yellow base, have a crescent-shaped nectar pit, and touch each other when the flower is open. Each petal is about 1 centimeter long. There are also five sepals, half as long as the petals, greenish with dark marks, especially at the tips. The flowers are hermaphroditic, with 15 to 30 stamens and up to about 65 carpels. The fruits are achenes, 1.2 to 1.8 millimeters long, with thin wings on the top and bottom when ripe and a short, side beak.

Identifying water-crowfoots is tricky. This species stands out by its usually coastal habitat, its mix of threadlike and flat leaves, and the blue tips on its typically downward-pointing sepals. Confirmation requires checking the winged achenes and the receptacle that lengthens as fruit forms.

The species went unnoticed until 1839, when Dominique Alexandre Godron named it *Ranunculus baudotii* in a journal from Nancy, France, honoring botanist Charles Joseph Auguste de Baudot from nearby Sarrebourg. He just beat others: in 1843, similar plants got independent names in two Scandinavian publications. Since then, it’s picked up 35 synonyms, according to Kew.