Anemones and pasque flowers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anemone (true anemones), counting about 150 species, is a widespread genus, found on all continents except Antarctica, with the largest diversity in northern temperate regions. Lately, taxonomists at the Kew Gardens in London have transferred many species of this genus to the genera Eriocapitella, Anemonoides, and Anemonastrum. This is based on minor differences, and here I have chosen to retain the former systematics.

Hepatica (blue anemones), comprising between 7 and 13 species, is restricted to the Northern Hemisphere.

Pulsatilla (pasque flowers) contains about 33 species, distributed in Eurasia and North America.

These plants do not possess sepals – or maybe the sepals are coloured, and the petals are missing. On this page, I use the term petals. The fruit is a cluster of tiny nut-like seeds, called achenes. In many species, they are embedded in dense woolly hairs.

Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.) says that you should pick the first anemone plant you see in spring, wrap it in a red cloth and keep it here, until you encounter a person with ‘the 3rd and 4th day fever’ (malaria). Then you put the plant on the sick person, who will surely be healed by this esteemed herb.

Pliny linked the name anemone to the Ancient Greek word anemos (’wind’), and windflower is a common English name of these plants. The connection, however, is very hard to see, and, as indicated below, it is probably a wrong assumption.

According to Philip K. Hitti, in his book History of Syria including Lebanon and Palestine (1951), the Arabic name of the crown anemone (Anemone coronaria) is shaqa’iq an-Nu’man, which literally translates as ‘the wounds, or pieces, of Nu’man’. Nu’man probably refers to the Sumerian god of food and vegetation, Tammuz, whose Phoenician name was Nea’man. It is generally believed that the Arabic an-Nu’man became anemos in the Greek, and that Tammuz was adopted by the Greeks as Adonis, who died of his wounds while hunting wild boar, and was transformed into a blood-red flower, stained by his blood. In the Near East, the crown anemone is often of the blood-red variety.

 

 

A pale-blue, or sometimes pure white form, var. pallida, is found in woods in the eastern half of the Danish island Bornholm. Its presence here is a bit of a mystery, since the nearest occurrence of the species is in Switzerland.

Some botanist believe that it was introduced. One authority (Hansen 2012) says: ”In 1532, Peder Oxe [a Danish nobleman] was sent on a cultural education tour through Europe, together with botanist Kristiern Torkelsen Morsing. This trip lasted five years, and Italy was included in the itinerary. (…) In 1553, Peder Oxe bought 30 farms on Bornholm (…), and as he was a keen gardener, it is quite possible that he brought this plant to the island.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It grows to about 25 cm tall, basal leaves tripartite, segments deeply lobed with rounded or sharp teeth along the margin, green above, usually purplish beneath. Involucral leaves are stalked, tripartite, segments similar to those of the basal leaves. Flowers solitary, with 12-15 narrowly oblong sepals/petals, dark blue, pale blue, reddish-purple, or white, to 2.5 cm long.

The specific name is Latin, meaning ‘pleasant’.

 

 

 

 

 

The specific name means ‘crowned’ or ‘garlanded’, of course referring to the ‘regal’ flowers. In Hebrew, its name is kalanit, derived from kala, meaning ‘bride’. The name poppy anemone refers to the resemblance of the red form to poppies. The plant very much resembles Ranunculus asiaticus, which also comes in various flower colours, but has both petals and sepals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It grows in grasslands and open woods, and along roads, preferably on moist ground. In Central Asia and North America, it has been found up to an altitude of 4,000 m. Medicinally, this plant has been utilized by the Aleuts to stop bleeding.

The specific and popular names refer to the flowers, which somewhat resemble those of poet’s daffodil (Narcissus poeticus). The name Narcissus is often linked to the Greek myth of the youth Narkissos, who was known for his beauty. However, he admired his own reflection in a pond so much that he fell into the water and drowned. The poet’s daffodil sprouted where he died. However, according to Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.), this plant was not named after the youth, but after its powerful fragrance, from the Greek narkao (‘I grow numb’).

Other pictures, depicting narcissus-flowered anemone, may be seen on the page Plants: Flora of the Alps and the Pyrenees.

 

 

 

 

 

Formerly, in Denmark and elsewhere, super-natural forces were ascribed to this species. If, early in spring, without speaking, you would eat the first three wood anemones you saw, you would surely avoid getting ague (the old term for malaria).

It has been suggested that English author J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), in his famous novel The Lord of the Rings, was inspired by the wood anemone to create simbelmynë, a white flower which grew on the grave mounds of the Kings of Rohan. I find this hard to believe, as Tolkien writes: “…they blossom in all seasons of the year,” which can hardly be said about the wood anemone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other such offerings are described on the page Religion: Animism, whereas Primula stuartii is presented in detail on the page Plants: Primroses, and Geum elatum on the page Plants: Himalayan flora.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under favourable conditions, yellow anemone may form carpets like Anemone nemorosa (above). Occasionally, hybrids between the two species occur, called Anemone x lipsiensis. They have pale yellow flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Nepal, the seeds are roasted and pickled. Medicinally, a paste of the plant is used for cough and fever, a decoction of the root is applied to wounds, and juice from the leaves is mixed with water and inhaled to relieve sinusitis. Some authorities place this species in the genus Eriocapitella.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some authorities place this species in the genus Anemonastrum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Besides this plant, Thomson’s gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii) and Thomson’s Falls, near Nyahururu, are named for him.

 

 

 

 

 

In Finland, it was first noticed as late as 1929, and some authorities speculate that it was intentionally brought to the country and planted by horticulturists. (Source: luontoportti.com/suomi/en/kukkakasvit/three-leaved-anemone)

Other pictures, depicting this plant, may be seen on the page Plants: Flora of the Alps and the Pyrenees.

 

 

 

 

 

It is found from Afghanistan eastwards through the Himalaya and southern Tibet to China and Taiwan, growing in open forests and grasslands, and along rivers.

In the Himalaya, it is used medicinally for various ailments, including toothache, headache, and dysentery. The toxic leaves are strewn in rivers as fish poison, and powdered leaves are applied to the head to kill lice. The woolly seed hairs were formerly used as tinder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The genus includes the following species, subspecies, and/or varieties:

H. nobilis var. nobilis (European hepatica, or blue anemone), distributed from Scandinavia and the Baltic southwards to Italy and the Balkans.

H. pyrenaica = H. nobilis var. pyrenaica (Pyrenean hepatica), found in the Pyrenees and northern Spain.

H. transsilvanica (Romanian hepatica), restricted to mountains in Romania.

H. falconeri, found in montane forests of Central Asia.

H. asiatica = H. nobilis var. asiatica, distributed in central and eastern China, Korea, and south-eastern Siberia.

H. henryi, found in central and western China.

H. yamatutai, restricted to Mount Emei Shan, Sichuan Province, China.

H. insularis, found in southern Korea.

H. maxima, endemic to Ulleung-do Island, Korea.

H. japonica = H. nobilis var. japonica, found in Japan.

H. pubescens = H. nobilis var. pubescens, restricted to central Honshu, Japan.

H. americana = H. nobilis var. obtusa (round-lobed hepatica), distributed in eastern North America.

H. acutiloba = H. nobilis var. acuta (sharp-lobed hepatica), likewise found in eastern North America.

Popular names of these plants include hepatica, liverleaf, or liverwort, named for their mostly three-lobed leaves, hepatica being derived from the Greek hepar (‘liver’). As the outline of the leaf resembles the human liver, followers of the Doctrine of Signatures claimed that they could be used for treatment of liver disorders. This is not the case, but the plant has been used to treat wounds, as an astringent, and as a diuretic.

A widely accepted theory is that the two American species, which have roughly the same area of distribution, evolved during the latest Ice Age, where two populations were isolated from each other by the advancing ice sheet. When the ice smelted, both populations were able to spread, but had by now become so different that they do not interbreed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The generic name is derived from the Latin pulsare (’to beat’), referring to the flowers, which move back and forth in the wind. The word pasque is from the Latin pascha, a corruption of the Ancient Greek páskh, which was ultimately from the Hebrew pésakh (‘Passover’). This one-day feast begins on the 14th day of the first month, followed by the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread.

In Christianity, pasque is an old expression for Easter. The name pasque flower refers to the early flowering of several species, often coinciding with Easter.

Pasque flowers are poisonous. In former times, in the Alps, it was believed that if they were brought into a house during the time when the geese were breeding, the goslings would be unable to break through the shell. A German belief in Brandenburg, where pasque flowers were called Hexenbart (‘witch beard’), was that they sprouted where a hunter had shot down a flying witch.

In Medieval medicine, it was believed that pasque flowers could be used against the plague and all sorts of poisons, including stings from poisonous animals. They were also used for fever, ‘sick’ eyes, and constipation.

In North America, native tribes utilized leaves of Pulsatilla patens for various ailments, including rheumatism, neuralgia, and headache, and also as a poultice. A decoction of the root was used to treat lung problems.

 

 

 

 

 

It comes in two subspecies, the white alpine pasque flower, ssp. alpina, which grows on limestone soil, and the yellow alpine pasque flower, ssp. apiifolia, which is found on acid soil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In former days, certain native peoples used a decoction of this herb to treat stomach trouble.

 

 

 

 

 

It comes in two varieties, var. patens of Europe and western Siberia, and var. multifida of eastern Siberia and North America. The former is highly threatened in Finland due to former over-collecting, and the latter is declining in America due to increased cultivation of prairies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The specific and common names refer to the early flowering of this species, which may take place as early as March.