Hecatonia pilosa Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 1: 303. 1790, not Ranunculus pilosus Humboldt (1821); R. brachyrhynchus S. S. Chien.

Herbs perennial. Roots fibrous, subequally thick. Stems 20--65 cm, hirsute, branched. Basal and lower stem leaves with petiole 4.5--20 cm, hirsute; blade ternate, broadly ovate in outline, 3--14 × 3.8--17 cm, thinly papery, sparsely strigose; leaflets petiolulate; central leaflet rhombic-ovate or broadly ovate, broadly cuneate or rounded-base truncate, margin 3-partite, denticulate; lateral leaflets obliquely broadly ovate, unequally 2-sect or 2-partite. Upper stem leaves smaller, shortly petiolate. Compound monochasium terminal, corymbose, 4--10-flowered; bracts leaflike. Flowers 0.9--1.3 cm in diam. Pedicel 1--4 cm, strigose. Receptacle hirtellous. Sepals 5, reflexed, narrowly ovate, 3--4 mm, strigose. Petals 5, narrowly elliptic or obovate, 4--7.5 × 2--3.8 mm, nectary pit covered by a scale, apex rounded. Stamens numerous; anthers oblong. Aggregate fruit subglobose, 7--9 mm in diam.; carpels numerous. Achene flat, obliquely obovate, 2.5--3 × 2.2--3 mm, glabrous, narrowly marginate; style persistent, triangular, ca. 1 mm, straight or uncinate at apex. Fl. Mar--Sep, fr. Apr--Nov.

Material of this species has been incorrectly named as Ranunculus fibrosus Wallich. There has also been confusion with R. chinensis, which was treated as a synonym of R. cantoniensis in Fl. Pakistan.

By streams, grassy slopes, forest margins; 100--1700 m. S and W Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, W Hubei, Hunan, S Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, Japan, S Korea, Nepal].