Caltha

Caltha
Caltha palustris ↑habit, ↓seeds
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Subfamily: Ranunculoideae
Tribe: Caltheae
Genus: Caltha
L.
Type species
Caltha palustris
L.
Synonyms [1][2]
  • Thacla Spach
  • Psychrophila DC

Caltha is a genus of rhizomatous perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae ("buttercup family"), to which ten species have been assigned. They occur in moist environments in temperate and cold regions of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.[3] Their leaves are generally heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, or are characteristically diplophyllous (the auricles of the leaf blades form distinctly inflexed appendages). Flowers are star shaped and mostly yellow to white. True petals and nectaries are missing but the five or more sepals are distinctly colored. As usual in the buttercup family there is a circle of stamens around (two to twenty-five) free carpels.[2]

  1. ^ "Caltha L." Panarctic Flora. Archived from the original on February 13, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2013.
  2. ^ a b Petra G. Smit (1973). "A Revision of Caltha (Ranunculaceae)". Blumea. 21: 119–150. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
  3. ^ Eric Schuettpelz; Sara B. Hoot (2004). "Phylogeny and biogeography of Caltha (Ranunculaceae) based on chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequences". American Journal of Botany. 91 (2): 247–253. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.2.247. PMID 21653380.