It's not the early spring-flowering winter aconite by any chance, is it? Catalogs & nurseries don't carry it much anymore because it's become naturalized in so many areas - yours included.

Oh & there is a similar plant to the aconite with a tiny Ranunculus-type flower. Damn if I can't remember what it's called. Will do some research & see if I can find it.

Try this USDA web site. If the plant you are looking for is a wildflower or escaped cultivated garden plant, it might be in this database. Maybe one of the plants pictured will look familiar. Clicking on a thumbnail image will bring up a larger photo or drawing of the plant and a map of its range. If you donÂt want to look through all the thumbnails, you can use the 'search' function in the page to search for the scientific name ranunculus. That gets you a text list with clickable links to the same photos and maps as the thumbnails.

Did your mother have her garden in Missouri? Maybe the Missouri Botanical Garden can help -- www.mobot.org

-- BC --

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA PLANTS Database