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Ranunculus formosa-montanus; photograph Cheng-Tao Lin, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYCheng-Tao Lin, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Ranunculus formosa-montanus Ohwi

Ranunculaceae · Taiwan

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Ranunculus formosa-montanus, photograph Cheng-Tao Lin, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFRanunculus formosa-montanus, photograph Jacy Chen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFRanunculus formosa-montanus, photograph Jacy Chen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFRanunculus formosa-montanus, photograph Cheng-Tao Lin, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFRanunculus formosa-montanus, photograph Cheng-Tao Lin, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFRanunculus formosa-montanus, photograph 沈玟伶(Wen-Ling Shen), CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
-1.5°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
17°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,336mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–35DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Ranunculus

Ranunculus is a large genus of about 1750 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ranunculus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,468 mm of 3,372 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 12.1 °C against a yearly mean of 8.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

3,372 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,468 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 508 mm, driest month December at 92 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 3,070 mm to 4,194 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,336 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,372 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 35).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -1.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -3.8 °C to 0.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 16.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -1.5 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Ranunculus formosa-montanus through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 17 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -1.5 °C; 3,372 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-5°0°5°10°15°20°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 18–35RH 60–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 14 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 4–87 / 5–99 / 7–1112 / 10–1414 / 12–1616 / 14–1717 / 15–1916 / 14–1815 / 13–1713 / 11–1510 / 8–127 / 5–9
Night °C-2 / -4–10 / -2–22 / 0–45 / 3–77 / 5–98 / 6–109 / 7–119 / 7–118 / 6–106 / 4–83 / 1–50 / -3–2
Rain mm105 / 84–136185 / 177–209187 / 179–208214 / 196–255363 / 339–449455 / 401–540428 / 386–476472 / 436–518508 / 437–628242 / 221–393121 / 98–18892 / 78–126
DLI18 / 16–2020 / 18–2226 / 24–2729 / 28–3029 / 29–3029 / 28–3035 / 33–3532 / 31–3228 / 27–2926 / 23–2721 / 18–2218 / 15–20
RH %61 / 56–6464 / 59–6663 / 59–6564 / 60–6565 / 62–6664 / 63–6661 / 61–6463 / 62–6665 / 62–6764 / 59–6762 / 56–6560 / 54–64

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1490 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -13.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.1 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 14 grid cells holding the 101 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1317:6026 (24.125, 121.325). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 14 distinct grid cells holding 101 of the 101 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1317:6026 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 24.00_121.250, lapse-corrected +1490 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2813 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTaiwan · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker24.149, 121.284 · in the densest population, 165 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 165 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 101 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 46 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 29 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 64 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 165 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ranunculus formosa-montanus, photograph 1did not loadRanunculus formosa-montanus, photograph 2did not loadRanunculus formosa-montanus, photograph 3did not loadRanunculus formosa-montanus, photograph 4did not loadRanunculus formosa-montanus, photograph 5did not loadRanunculus formosa-montanus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Cheng-Tao Lin, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); Jacy Chen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); 沈玟伶(Wen-Ling Shen), CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Goodyera nankoensis Goodyera nankoensis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好Pimpinella niitakayamensis Pimpinella niitakayamensis Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te HsuArgentina leuconota Argentina leuconota Silverleaf Cinquefoil Photo: CC BY, Licheng ShihRosa morrisonensis Rosa morrisonensis Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, crothfelsAstilbe macroflora Astilbe macroflora Largeleaf Astilbe Photo: CC BY, crothfelsVeronica morrisonicola Veronica morrisonicola Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好

Other Ranunculus 111 in the reference

Ranunculus abnormis Ranunculus abnormis Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY, Andre HosperRanunculus abortivus Ranunculus abortivus Early wood buttercup Photo: CC BY, Dustin SniderRanunculus aconitifolius Ranunculus aconitifolius Aconite-leaved Buttercup Photo: CC BY, Antoine ThivolleRanunculus acris Ranunculus acris Meadow buttercup Photo: CC BY, Jose Gutierrez HigaRanunculus aduncus Ranunculus aduncus Hooked Buttercup Photo: CC BY-SA, Francois MansourRanunculus alismifolius Ranunculus alismifolius Water-plantain buttercup Photo: CC BY, Ben CoonsRanunculus alpestris Ranunculus alpestris Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY, EliasRanunculus amphitrichus Ranunculus amphitrichus Small river buttercup Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony EalesRanunculus amplexicaulis Ranunculus amplexicaulis Amplexicaule Buttercup Photo: CC BY, CenaidaRanunculus anemoneus Ranunculus anemoneus Anemone buttercup Photo: CC BY, Todd HuangRanunculus aquatilis Ranunculus aquatilis Common water-crowfoot Photo: CC BY, Evan M. RaskinRanunculus arvensis Ranunculus arvensis Corn buttercup Photo: CC BY, Daniel Cahen all 112 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Ranunculus japonicus var. yakushimensis. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Ranunculus matsudae; Ranunculus yakushimensis: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Ranunculaceae
Described by
Ohwi
Native to
Taiwan
Wild records
165 in range · 46 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 24.00_121.250, lapse-corrected +1490 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1490 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…