Ranunculus parnassifolius

[fermi de Sousa]

We're asking for help from the knowledgeable members of the Forum about this lovely plant.
Viv Condon, a new Forum member and a stalwart of our local group, has submitted a request to our Quarantine Service to allow it to be imported. Unfortunately they want more information and we don't know where to find it. The sort of questions they're asking are things like "Is it palatable to stock?". Viv's sending me the complete list of questions and post them here when I get them.
I hope you can help, not thinking of anyone in particular (Cliff!) but I'm sure the accumulated knowledge of the Forumists may be able to sway the Bureaucracy to allow us to import this beautiful plant!
cheer
fermi

[David Shaw]

Q:   Are they easy to grow?
A:   No
Actually, I did keep one going for three or four years in a gritty bed. Now I just have the one plant, raised from seed.

I may have a limited amount of fresh seed in the near future - if it ripens. Would that be of any interest?

[Magnar]

In my relatively cool North Norwegian climate Ranunculus parnassifolius is a reliable long lived perennial which self seeds easily in the garden, if I don't collcet all the seeds to send then to friends.

[Lesley Cox]

Hi Fermi,
      R. parnassifolius is easy enough here and last summer I sent seed to Don S. at Mt Tomah. I can most likely send some to you and Viv next time round. I don't know about palatable to stock but I can't imagine any situation where it would be AVAILABLE to stock in Australia unless your pet lamb strayed into the garden.

It is on our Biosecurity Index as permitted and doesn't even have to be quarantined provided it comes with a phyto cert and other conditions are filled. So NZ authourities see no problems with it. Could be worth mentioning that. Also, when I send the seed to Don, it was declared on the envelope by name and wasn't stopped.

Probably not palatable to stock anyway. They don't touch other buttercups such as the creeping field buttercup which we all have in the countryside.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi everyone,
  These are the other questions we have been asked:
1.) allelopathic potential?
2.) palatability to grazing animals?
3.) ability to self- fertilize?
4.) generative  time?
5.) response to fire?
Does anyone have access to Flora Europa or some similar weighty tome which might add weight to our arguement?
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Lesley and David,
fresh seed would be gratefully recieved but it will be withheld by AQIS - if intercepted. Lesley, I would suspect that the seed you sent were either not intercepted or cleared by someone who didn't know it wasn't on ICON (our "permitted seeds" list) it happens sometimes!
I'll mention to Viv about it being on the NZ list but I'm not sure that will cut any ice with AQIS.
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

A second thought about palatability to stock, deer eat R. lyallii. But when would parnassifolius ever get to be a pasture plant or become established in the Australian bush for heaven's sake, and so available to wild animals?

What does allelopathic mean? It's not in my dictonary, the nearest being allelomorph = "one or the other of two contrasting characteristics which appear in the offspring of a cross between parental forms respectively exhibiting these characteristics." Yeah, right.

Don't know about self fertility. I cross pollinated my 2 seedlings to get seed.

Takes some months (so far) to germinate and maybe 2 or 3 years to produce flowers.

I should imagine fire would cook it out of existance. It's a little plant after all.

[ranunculus]

Hi Fermi,
My sincere apologies for being so tardy in replying to this discussion (I have been engrossed in downloading and naming images).
Firstly, I will thoroughly endorse everything that Lesley and Magnar have said about Ranunculus parnassifolius. It can be a fine and long-lived plant (though there are very inferior forms in cultivation here in the U.K.), and will make an excellent specimen for exhibition if given three or four years to bulk up and become established.  I have five large pot grown plants (two of which are now five years old) and these produce ample seed in a good year. These plants remain outside all year in all conditions.  I have also a lot of one and two year old seedlings that seem quite amenable to neglect as they are healthy and growing quite adequately with very little care.
I feel certain that they have the ability to self-fertilize and I am sure they will produce self-sown seedlings the year after fertilization. As to their ability to withstand fire .... I would think they would prove very generous producers of ash, but little else.  I have no knowledge of their palatability to grazing animals...our rabbits eat lettuce.... and as far as allelopathic potential is concerned, I'm with Lesley on this one....what on earth do they mean? 
Sorry I can't be of any more assistance Fermi, except, of course, to offer seed if required....it is a lovely little Ranunculus, but it would blush if it realised it was under such intense scrutiny...it simply wants to bloom in the suburbs of Sydney and South West Australia. It will NEVER replace the eucalyptus.
Kindest regards. 

[gote]

for allelopatic I suggest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allelopathy
Convallarias are supposed to harm neighbours. I know they tend to be outcrowding other plants but I would like to see proof that they do chemical warfare on their neighbours which seems to be what allelophaty is.
Juglans cineria is supposed top kill everything under itself but my specimen do not harm anything as far as I can see. The weeds like them.
Not helpful on the subject I am afraid.
Göte
 

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks for this reference Gote. From the information available there I would suggest that R. parnassifolius has NO allelopathic potential. (Good God, I hope our MAF don't start wanting proof of THAT from now on. We'll get nothing in at all, because how can you prove it's benign in that respect?) It is just a little, tufted plant that doesn't creep about and does no harm to anything at all.

[ranunculus]

Hear, hear Lesley!

Join the Ranunculus parnassifolius support group by sending thirty five N.Z. dollars to:-

[Lesley Cox]

Hear, hear Lesley!

Join the Ranunculus parnassifolius support group by sending thirty five N.Z. dollars to:-

This suggestion does NOT originate with me, sweet thought that it is We have it here, mine coming as 2 seedlings from Doreen Mear whose source may have been in East Lancs, since she hails from there. It's the Aussies who are wanting to import it. If eventually allowed to do so, they'd be better to bring in seeds rather than plants.