Creeping Spearwort (Ranunculus reptans)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vascular plant > flowering plant > Herbaceous plant |
| Red List Status: | Vulnerable (Not Relevant) [VU(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Ranunculus reptans |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | L. |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | in Stroh et al., 2014 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Creeping Spearwort is a poorly understood taxon with just a few recent records for England, all from the shores of Ullswater in the English Lake District. It is threatened by hybridisation with R. flammula (R. x levensis). |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Recovery will require site-specific measures. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | No |
| Justification: | The species is too restricted to benefit from such schemes. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 2. Biological status assessment exists |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Pathogen, hybridisation, INNS |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Possibly only ever a chance colonist due to dispersal by geese and vulnerable to hybridisation with the very common Ranunculus flammula. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: A detailed survey of suitable habitats (gravelly shores with Ittoella uniflora) on Ullswater is needed to establish (a) the size of the population/number of locations and (b) the extent to which it has hybridised with R. flammula.
Action targets: 2. Biological status assessment exists
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Ullswater
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Identification of key sites and implementation of protection measures to reduce disturbance such as fencing off areas.
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Pressure mitigation
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Aira Beck outflow, Ullswater
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.