Ivy-leaved Crowfoot - Ranunculus hederaceus

Distinguished from other Water Crowfoots by its lack of any submerged, divided leaves, smaller flowers (3 to 6 mm) and 5 domed leaf lobes, which have their widest point at their base.

Other Crowfoots

Ref. key in Stace.  The differences between species in this difficult subgenus are hard to tell from a photo.  Details of the flower petals and nectaries, and of the two types of leaf (if present) are needed.  Capillary leaves are thread like, usually but not always submerged; and laminar are 'normal', usually floating or terestrial, but not always.

Photograph: in habitat, of both kinds of leaf, and a close-up of flower.  Take a specimen, including both types of leaf, if present, and retain it until your record is verified; you may need to send the specimen to the County Recorder.  An explanation of how it fits the key in Stace is needed. (RPR)

Found at the edge of small water bodies and by the sheltered backwaters of rivers. It often grows on the cattle-poached edges of ponds, ditches and streams, in wet gateways and on paths and tracks. It tolerates a broad range of pH and nutrient levels, including nitrophilous conditions.

In flower during June, July, August and September.

Annual or short-lived perennial.

It has declined since 1950 in areas where the agriculture is now mostly arable, but remains fairly frequent elsewhere.

Scarce in Leicestershire and Rutland.

In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 19 of the 617 tetrads, and in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971) in 1 tetrad.

It is listed as Native, but now possibly Scarce, in the current Checklist (Jeeves, 2011)

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Scarce (i.e. present in 4-10 sites)