A single white star per stem above a whorl of three deeply cut leaves; the flower nods and shuts in dull weather
Wood anemone — Anemonoides nemorosa.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Wood anemone
Flowers March to May
Anemonoides nemorosa — Ranunculaceae
The wood anemone is the white star of the spring woodland floor, one flower to a stem above a whorl of three deeply cut leaves. It is a classic ancient-woodland indicator because it spreads almost entirely by creeping rhizome rather than seed, and does so with famous slowness. Its English name, windflower, and its Latin one both come from the Greek anemos, wind.
How to spot them
- ▸One flower per stem, with six to seven white petal-like sepals — no true petals at all
- ▸Backs of the 'petals' often flushed pink or purple; the flower closes and droops in dull weather
- ▸A whorl (involucre) of three long-stalked, deeply three-lobed leaves below the flower
- ▸Carpets of them on the floor of old broadleaved woodland and shady hedgebanks, March to May
- ▸Spreads by rhizome, so colonies form discrete patches rather than an even spread
How to know it
What look like its six or seven petals are in fact sepals, often flushed purple on the back
Wood anemone — it has no petals.
Called the windflower; both its English and Latin names derive from the Greek for wind
Wood anemone, from anemos.
An ancient-woodland indicator that seeds poorly and spreads by rhizome at a legendary six feet per century
Wood anemone.
County flower of Middlesex, and once known as the smell fox for the musky scent of its leaves
Wood anemone.
A buttercup relative whose genus was split off from Anemone in the 21st century; it contains the irritant protoanemonin
Wood anemone — now Anemonoides nemorosa, family Ranunculaceae.
Its epithet means 'of the woods', and folklore held that fairies slept in its closed blooms at night
Anemonoides nemorosa — the wood anemone.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Ranunculaceae (buttercups); formerly Anemone nemorosa, moved to the genus Anemonoides in recent classifications
- •nemorosa means 'of groves or woods'
- •Sets little viable seed in Britain and spreads mainly by rhizome, which is why it indicates long-established woodland
- •The often-quoted spread rate is about six feet, roughly two metres, per century
- •Poisonous, like other buttercup relatives, containing protoanemonin; grazing animals avoid it
- •County flower of Middlesex in Plantlife's 2002 County Flowers survey
- •Country names include windflower, smell fox, thimbleweed and moonflower
- •Frequently found alongside bluebell, dog's mercury and yellow archangel — all woodland-indicator species
Drill it — 8 cards
1 / 8new card
Sources
- Woodland Trust — Wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa)