Silky, purple bells with a golden centre and ferny, hairy leaves on dry chalk grassland at Easter
Pasqueflower, Pulsatilla vulgaris.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Pasqueflower
Native · flowers Mar–May · dry chalk and limestone grassland, England only
Pulsatilla vulgaris — Ranunculaceae
The pasqueflower is a silky, purple, bell-shaped anemone relative that flowers at Easter on a few dry chalk and limestone grasslands in England. Plantlife says it survives at only 19 sites, having been lost from 108, and rates it Vulnerable. Legend says it grows from the blood of Danes or Romans on ancient barrows, and it is the county flower of Cambridgeshire.
How to spot them
- ▸Upward-facing, bell-shaped flowers of deep purple, with silky hairs on the outside, around a boss of bright yellow stamens
- ▸Finely divided, feathery, silky-hairy grey-green leaves, in a neat clump, appearing with and after the flowers
- ▸Silky, feathery seed heads like a fluffy silver ball after flowering
- ▸Grows on short, dry, undisturbed chalk and limestone grassland, often on old earthworks, in the Chilterns, Cotswolds, East Anglia and Lincolnshire
- ▸Look-alike: none among native plants, though the purple bells may suggest a crocus at a distance, and garden Pulsatilla can be confused with it; the silky hairs and feathery leaves confirm it
How to know it
Its name comes from 'paschal', meaning Easter, when it flowers, and it was called the 'anemone of Passiontide'
Pasqueflower.
Legend claims it sprang from the blood of slain Danes or Romans, but it simply likes the undisturbed chalk of ancient barrows and boundary banks
Pasqueflower.
Plantlife says only 19 sites are left in England, after 108 losses, and rates this purple bell Vulnerable to extinction
Pasqueflower.
Therfield Heath in Hertfordshire has one of the largest colonies, with up to 60,000 plants
Pasqueflower.
Geoffrey Grigson called it a fair claim to be the most dramatically and exotically beautiful of all English plants; it is the county flower of Cambridgeshire
Pasqueflower.
Quick-fire facts
- •Native perennial of dry calcareous grassland; family Ranunculaceae, the buttercup family, like anemones and clematis
- •Flowers March to May, best in April, around Easter (Plantlife)
- •Found at only 19 sites in England, lost from 108; Vulnerable on the Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain, and Near Threatened on the global IUCN Red List (Plantlife, Wildlife Trusts)
- •Present only in the Chilterns, Cotswolds, East Anglia and Lincolnshire (Wildlife Trusts)
- •Therfield Heath Coronation Meadow in Hertfordshire holds up to 60,000 plants (Plantlife)
- •County flower of Cambridgeshire in Plantlife's 2002 county flowers campaign
- •Not on Schedule 8, but it is a UK priority species and a Plantlife rescue species, needing grazing to prevent scrub taking over
- •Like other buttercup relatives it contains an acrid irritant, protoanemonin, and should not be eaten; the petals were once used to dye Easter eggs green
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Sources
- Plantlife — Pasqueflower
- The Wildlife Trusts — Pasqueflower