Ranunculus inundatus

Ranunculus inundatus is a small aquatic to amphibious perennial herb in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) native to southeastern Australia, including Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania, and South Australia, where it grows in shallow temporary waters, swampy margins, and seasonally flooded ground. The plant spreads by slender, creeping, rooting stems that form mats in soft mud or below the water surface. Leaves arise on long petioles 5-25 cm long and have blades divided into 3 deeply lobed segments, each segment further dissected into linear to narrowly oblong, often forked lobes that splay outward, giving an umbrella-like appearance when emergent; submerged leaves are similar but more flaccid. Flowers are borne singly on slender peduncles held above the water; each flower has 4-7 (typically 5-6) bright yellow, somewhat overlapping, shiny petals 4-10 mm long, with a basal nectary scale, and numerous yellow stamens and central greenish carpels. The aggregate fruit is a small head of plump, smooth achenes 1.5-2 mm long with a short curved beak.