ANEMONE

BOTANICAL FAMILY: Ranunculaceae

OTHER NAMES: Pasqueflower

NATURAL HISTORY:

Anemone, genus of plants comprising about 120 species belonging to the family Ranunculaceae ( see BUTTERCUP), distributed chiefly in the North Temperate Zone. About 25 species occur in North America. The plants of this genus are perennial herbs and are sometimes called windflowers because many species grow in windward places. Most flower early in the spring. One species, Anemone quinquefolia, the American wood anemone, is found in eastern North America. It has white flowers tinged with pink or crimson and blossoms in April or May. The plant is similar to the European wood anemone, A. nemorosa.Another species, A. pulsatilla or Pulsatilla vulgaris, the pasqueflower, is found in chalky pastures in some parts of England and also blossoms in April or May. The American pasqueflower, A. patens, resembling the European species, is the state flower of South Dakota. The poppy anemone, A. coronaria, is a widely cultivated American species and is a favorite in gardens. Red and blue flowers have been introduced. The Japanese anemone, A. japonica, is an autumn-blooming species that is also extensively cultivated.

Anemone Pulsatilla syn Pasque Flower, Wind Flower, Meadow Anemone, Passe Flower, Easter Flower. Thick woody root stock. Roswette of stalked leaves covered with silky haiors, purplish foot stalk. Flowers 1 ½ “ across borne on 5” stalks appearing around easter time. Violet sepals. Most of the leaves develop after the flowers. The name pulsatilla is from pulsc meaning ‘I beat’ from the downy seeds being blown about in the wind.

Pulsatilla nuttaliane American pulsatilla the flowers are pale purple used for treating rheumatism of the knees

Anemone nemorosa Wood Anemone syn. Crowfoot, Windflower, Smell Fox long creeping root stock running just below the surface, so the plant spreads rapidly and forms large colonies. Like s moist soil of woodlands. Has deeply cut leaves and star like flowers rising on separate stems. The flowers are pale while on the upper surface and pinkish beneath. The flower opens wide in the sun but closes and droops its head at night, as it does in the rain.

 PRACTICAL USES:

The juice of the pasque flower petals gives a non permanent stain to paper and linen and is sometimes used to colour paschal eggs.

LORE:

According to another myth, Aphrodite placed the infant Adonis in a chest and gave it to Persephone, the queen of the underworld, for safekeeping.  Persephone became enchanted with the youth and wanted to keep him.  To settle the quarrel between the goddesses, Zeus, king of the gods, ruled that Adonis would spend part of the year with Aphrodite and part of the year with Persephone.  When Adonis stayed with Aphrodite on earth, plants and crops flourished.  During his time in the underworld, vegetation died.  The Greeks used this myth to explain why the seasons changed.  They honored Adonis in ceremonies and by cultivating plants that grew and died quickly. Tammuz blood is allegorical of the red anemones that redden the slopes of Mount Lebanon after the winter rains.

Country folk say that the folded sepals of the wood anemone are used by fairies for protection, pulling the curtains around them.

The Egyptians thought the white anemone an emblem of sickness and the Chinese called it ‘the flower of death’ and in many european countries it is considered to be unlucky. The romans picked the first anemone as a charm against fever and in many places this practice survived and it was tied around the neck with the charm ‘I gather this against all diseases’.

In Greek myth Anemos, the wind, send the Anemones in the early spring as a herald of his coming. Pliny said they only open when the wind blows, hence the name ‘windflower’. In Greek myth the anemone sprang from the tears of Venus when she wept for Adonis-

Where streams his blood there blushing springs a rose

And where a tear has dropped, a windflower blows

The old herbalists called the wood a the wood crowfoot because the leaves resemble some species of crowfoot it was believed to cure leprosy. Linnaeus noted that in Sweden the wood anemone bloomed as the swallow returned many writers attribute the name windflower to the trembling of the flowers before the blasts of spring.

The wood anemone is called lady’s petticoat and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

MEDICINAL:

Parts Used: Whole herb Anemone Pulsatilla

Actions: nervine, antispasmodic, alterative, diaphoretic, beneficial to disorders of the mucous membrane, respiratory and digestive passages, spasmodic coughs, asthma, whooping cough and bronchitis. As a homeopathic it is a specific for measles, nettlerash, toothache, indigestion and bilious attacks

NB: the oil should not be kept too long ad the chemical constituents change and become irritant