When I first noticed this plant growing in dappled sun near oaks and hickories, I thought it might be some kind of wild parsley.

But then it flowered...

now I'm thinking maybe some kind of Buttercup?

I believe so. Although it is somewhat different than those around here.

Yes it looks like a Ranunculus, there are a lot of species. Here's some maps of of all the species recorded in the US. You can use these to narrow down which one.
http://bonap.net/NAPA/TaxonMap...

I went through the list last night, the closest I found was Ranunculus macounii

http://luirig.altervista.org/f...

It's early to flower ..

http://wildflowerswest.org/mac...

http://www.easterncoloradowild...

The stems are densely hairy, I can't see hairs on your plant Christine.

https://www.minnesotawildflowe...

On the Minnesota site it says Ranunculus hispidus is similar with hairy stems when young, almost smooth when older.

http://www.discoverlife.org/mp...

Thank you all.

Janet, thank you for all of the info. I didn't notice hair either. I'll have to go check in out again and see what I can find. I'll be back, hopefully with more photos.

I went out and took another look this morning. I'm leaning towards maybe R. hispidus but...

Here's a couple of pictures showing it does have some hairs, even though I couldn't actually see them with the naked eye, they come through in close-up photos.

There are a few 'whiskers' on the stem and more on the flower bud ~



Overall view of the plant this morning, the flower was still closed



I'll see if I can get a better look when the sun moves farther away.

There's subspecies of R. hispida in Minnesota, there may be different subsp. in Texas.

The sepals of hispida may be reflexed, reading the full description it says the base of the petals is greenish which I can't see on yours.

https://www.minnesotawildflowe...

Well I'm still not sure on which Ranunculus this is. Here's more pictures for help.

Looks like Ranunculus to me but I have no idea which one. This says there are 18 sp. in Texas: http://essmextension.tamu.edu/...

Thank you for that link, Lin. I didn't know that it has a toxin, and it's good to know.

R. hispidus doesn't always have a green base to the petals it seems, and the sepals are reflexed. There's a lot of variation so it could be R. hispidus.

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

Hispid Buttercup (Ranunculus hispidus)

Thanks a bunch, Janet for checking again. Looks like R. hispidus is right.

Thank you, Lin for verifying.

I will now consider this one solved.

The photos will make a great addition to the ATP database!!

I found a good description which seems to verify R. hispidus.

http://www.illinoiswildflowers...

The terminal leaflet has a short petiolule (short stalk) at its base, while the lateral leaflets are either sessile or they have even shorter petiolules.

True.

The upper leaves are smaller in size than the basal leaves and their leaflets are often lack lobes.

True.

Toward the center of each flower, the petals become semi-translucent and each petal has several fine lines that function as nectar guides.

You can see that in this photo ..

http://garden.org/pics/2016-04...

The sepals are hairy and lanceolate in shape

The are hairs showing on the outer casing of the flower buds, which will become the sepals when open.

http://garden.org/pics/2016-04...

Excellent detective work, Janet.

porkpal said:Excellent detective work, Janet.

I truly don't know what we'd do without Janet's expertise and sleuthing!

Excellent, Janet! Fantastic super sluething.

I added one image to the database but will add the others today.