i have quite some Ranunculus repens and can weed them without killing the Anemone blanda nearby... or some Delphinium which can look amazingly similar

I would say: foliage too irregular, thin and roundly lobed,

so quite likely something else

added: especially in the second pic it looks very different

Yea, I would agree Ranunculus repens's leaves are usually much more deeply and sharply-lobed. So, I wonder what this is, then? Damn, didn't realize there were so many lookalikes of this type!

Definitely not R repens. Really nothing like it.

OK, so I let one of these bloom just for ID purposes and...it looks like it IS invasive Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens)...not to be confused with Anemone berlandieri (Tenpetal Anemone).

Well, looks like I'll be composting it now!

Nope. That is not R. repens. It is a Ranunculus, but not that one.

^ Oh, well that sounds like good news.. But wonder which Ranunculus it is, then?

I’m sure Texas has many native Ranunculus species, none of which I have ever seen, so I can’t help further. But R. repens is very familiar to me, growing absolutely everywhere here.

ranunculus sceleratus?

Oh no, definitely not. Flowers are totally different on that one. Leaves too. Differently lobed and fleshy in texture. I have R sceleratus in my garden grown from wild gathered seed.

There are 18 species of ranunculus native to Texas and who knows how many more that have naturalized. Without clear and detailed photos of the foliage and flowers, we are only guessing.

If a Ranunculus species isn't easily identified by obvious charecters, ie (white, LIGHT) leaf markings near the sinuses= R. repens, than it must be keyed with the plant in hand. They can be so similar that they require looking at the leaves, sepals, petioles, leaf undersides, stem, petiolules, roots, flowers, basal leaves, cauline leaves both lower and top near flowers, fruits. I wouldn't post anymore questionable Ranunculus species. The photos don't show sepals, leaf undersides, adaxial. There is no clear indication of which leaves are basal and which are cauline. The photo shows pubescence, but the quality is far from showing exactly what kind of pubescence, pilose?, hirsute?, hispid?, etc. Judging from all the Ranunculus species in the Dallas area you can eliminate repens, fascicularis, muricatus. This plant could be a variety of the Ranunculus hispidus complex, or Ranunculus sardous,( which I'm not familiar with). This genus of 600 species is broken up into sections, and only certified botanists can view that online info, or there's a book I think by Lyman Benton. There are quite a few Ranunculus hispidus varieties, but nothing online that I can find to key them out. Good luck!

Some Ranunculus species are so similar that the only way to ID them is by measuring the achenes, or by the locations they are growing at.

Map of Ranunculus hispidus

Map of Ranunculus sardous

Map of all Ranunculus species. muricatus, hispidus, sardous, multifidus, sceleratus, repens, fascicularis, arbortivus.

Ranunculus hispidus has 1 sure way of being identified. The flower petals become transluscent near the flower center. Your 3rd photo looks like maybe the petals are transluscent towards the center. If it's not hispidus, then I have no idea what else it could be. I'm assuming all the varieties have this same trait, but I can't find any information about them to be certain.

Petals of Ranunculus hispidus showing transluscence.

There is also a variety nitidus not mentioned by Weakley, probably because it doesn't occur in the southeast. Texas isn't mentioned in the flora as part of it's range, but hispidus is definately in Texas. If it's not hispidus, then it must be sardous.

The other post about 10 petal Anemone, any chance you will get to see it in bloom? That species is blooming in Florida now.

Yes, I see the slight translucence in the center...so I'll go with Ranunculus hispidus then, I guess!

And OK, I just posted a pic of one I believe I had transplanted in the latest comment here.

Can you get a pic of that flower with the slight transluscent center? I really think it's Ranunculus sardous, Hairy Buttercup. Don't you?