What makes the Anemone Buttercup unique?

Question

What makes the Anemone Buttercup unique?

Answer 1

The endemic ( grows nowhere else ) Anemone buttercup  (Ranunculus anemoneus) belongs to the " Threatened Alpine Flora" of Australia.

Its creamy-white flowers are large compared with other alpine ranunculi (to 6 cm in diameter ).

Anemone Buttercup flower buds in autumn and blooms soon after snow melt.

A lot of details:

http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversi...

Results of a study:

"Phylogenetic analysis using nuclear and chloroplast DNA regions reveals the Australian alpine species to be a recently diverged group, possibly of Pleistocene origin. The group is closely allied to species in alpine New Guinea, and it has been hypothesised that the group arrived in Australia via long distance bird mediated dispersal."

see page 13:

http://www.crctourism.com.au/CRCBookshop...

Publication about limits of distribution: page 109 of the same site.