Ranunculus trilobus Desf.

Erect or slightly spreading annual, glabrous or sparsely pilose; roots fibrous. Leaves with petioles 2–10 cm long, sparsely hairy; first basal leaves with lamina suborbicular, 1–4 cm long, entire or shallowly ternately divided, later leaves deeply ternately dissected to trifoliolate, segments cuneate-obovate, dentate or more deeply lobed; upper cauline leaves and bracts usually with linear-oblong segments. Flowering stems 20–80 cm high, several–many-flowered. Sepals 5, ovate, 3–5 mm long, reflexed, glabrous or sparsely pilose beneath. Petals (3–) 4 or 5, elliptic to obovate, 4–8 mm long, golden-yellow; nectary virtually at petal-base, with lobe cuneate to obovate, 0.5–1 mm long, free for more than half this length. Stamens 10–20. Pistils 18–50. Receptacle hispid. Achenes in a slightly elongated head, ovate-orbicular, 2.5–3.5 mm long, flat; faces brown, with many small conical-hemispherical tubercles; margins narrowly keeled, green; beak narrowly triangular, scarcely c. 0.5 mm long, recurved.

Found in moist depressions, roadsides, alluvial flats and irrigated land.