Tiny Mouse-tail (Myosurus minimus)
- Family: Buttercup (Ranunculaceae)
- Flowering: March-May.
- Field Marks: This easily recognized tiny annual has
five pale yellow petals at the base of an elongated green
receptacle that bears the pistils.
- Habitat: Fallow fields, pastures, disturbed soil.
- Habit: Annual herb with fibrous roots.
- Stems: Erect, smooth, up to 6 inches tall, bearing
only a single flower.
- Leaves: All basal, linear, smooth, rounded at the
tip, about 1/10 inch broad.
- Flowers: Solitary on a leafless stalk.
- Sepals: 5, greenish, free from each other, up to 1/6
inch long, with a tiny prolonged spur.
- Petals: 5, yellow, free from each other, up to 1/6
inch long.
- Stamens: 5-20.
- Pistils: Several on an elongated receptacle, the
receptacle becoming up to 2 1/2 inches long at maturity; ovary
superior.
- Fruits: Achenes flat, smooth, 1/20-1/12 inch long,
with a short beak.
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