Ranunculus vaginatus Handel-Mazzetti, Symb. Sin. 7: 303. 1931, not Sommerauer (1833).

Herbs perennial. Roots fibrous, subequally thick. Stems ascending or erect, 2--28 cm, appressed or spreading hispid, strigose above, branched or simple. Basal leaves ternate; petiole 3--9.5 cm, spreading or appressed hispid; blade pentagonal or broadly ovate, 1--4 × 1.4--7.6 cm, papery, strigose, central leaflet petiolulate, less often sessile, rhombic or broadly so, margin 3-lobed or 3-partite, few dentate, apex acute; lateral leaflets obliquely flabellate, unequally 2-partite. Stem leaves similar to basal ones, with shorter petioles. Flowers solitary, terminal, 1.1--1.5 cm in diam. Receptacle sparsely pilose. Sepals 5, reflexed, narrowly ovate, 4--6 mm, abaxially strigose. Petals 5, narrowly obovate or narrowly elliptic, 6.5--11 × 3--4.2 mm, nectary pit covered by a scale, apex rounded. Stamens numerous; anthers broadly oblong. Aggregate fruit subglobose, 5--6 mm in diam.; carpels 10--17. Achene flat, obliquely broadly obovate, 2.2--3 × 2--3.3 mm, glabrous, narrowly marginate; style persistent, 1.7--2 mm. Fl. Apr--Sep.

* Grassy places, forests, by streams; 1500--3200 m. S Gansu, S Shaanxi, W Sichuan, NW Yunnan.