Myosurus

a genus of annual herbaceous plants of the family Ranunculaceae. The narrowly linear leaves are in a basal rosette. The small, bisexual flowers are solitary on the ends of the stems. There are usually five sepals, and the petals are modified into nectaries. The fruit consists of numerous carpels, borne on an extremely elongated, almost cylindrical receptacle. There are about six species (according to other sources, up to 15), distributed primarily in the temperate zone. The USSR has one species, mousetail (Myosurus minimus), which grows in the European part, the Caucasus, Western Siberia, and Middle Asia. It grows as a weed among crops, in fields, along roads, in damp meadows, and along riverbanks.