Wood Anemone

Anemonoides nemorosa the wood anemone in Europe and Asia.

Wood anemone. Its white flowers bloom between March and May before the canopy becomes too dense but its seeds are mostly infertile and it spreads slowly through the growth of its roots. The parts that grow above the ground are used to make medicine. Look for them in old and ancient woodland that suits their slow growth.

Click below on a thumbnail map or name for subspecies profiles. Wide 4 cm adorned with dove-gray on their reverse and a ring of prominent golden stamens. A single plant may take 5 years or longer to flower so often only a few flowers are seen among the leaves.

Other common names include windflower thimbleweed and smell fox an allusion to the musky smell of the leaves. Wood anemone is an herb that has been used in traditional medicine. When not flowering it can be recognized by the basal leaves nearly round in outline with 3 hairy nearly stalkless leaflets the lateral leaflets often deeply cleft.

It is a perennial herbaceous plant growing 515 cm 26 in tall. One of the first flowers of spring wood anemones bloom like a galaxy of stars across the forest floor. There is a form with multiple leaves and also plants whose petals are lobed liked leaves or even green.

Flowers may be white greenish-yellow red or purple depending on the variety. Their latin name is Amemone nemorosa but have the endearing common names of Windflower and Ladies nightcap. Sun-loving gentle a mark of the old.

As a species its surprisingly slow to spread six feet in a hundred years relying on the growth of its root structure rather than the spread of its seed. The plant is found growing in deciduous forests forest edges clearing forest steppe zones young broad-leaved forests coppices grazing lands swamps banks ditch banks under Pteridium on hedge banks in healthy. Wood Anemones are part of the ranunculus or buttercup family.