Anemonoides nemorosa

Anemonoides nemorosa (syn. Anemone nemorosa), the wood anemone, is an early-spring flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to Europe. Other common names include windflower, European thimbleweed, and smell fox, an allusion to the musky smell of the leaves. It is a perennial herbaceous plant growing tall.

Description

alt=Six-petaled white flower|thumb|Typical flower

Anemonoides nemorosa is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant less than in height. The compound basal leaves are palmate or ternate (divided into three lobes). They grow from underground root-like stems called rhizomes and die back down by mid summer (summer dormant).

The plants start blooming in spring, March to May in the British Isles soon after the foliage emerges from the ground. The flowers are solitary, held above the foliage on short stems, with a whorl of three palmate or palmately-lobed leaflike bracts beneath. The flowers are diameter, with six or seven (and on rare occasions eight to ten) tepals (petal-like segments) with many stamens. In the wild the flowers are usually white but may be pinkish, lilac or blue, and often have a darker tint on the backs of the tepals.

Similar species

The yellow wood anemone (Anemonoides ranunculoides) is slightly smaller, with yellow flowers and usually without basal leaves.

Distribution and habitat

thumb|upright|Eight A. nemorosas in the coat of arms of [[Raseborg]]

The native range of Anemonoides nemorosa extends across Europe to western Asia, reaching as far south as the Caucasus Mountains in Turkey. It has been introduced into New Zealand and elsewhere. In North America, there are naturalized populations at well-known sites in Newfoundland, Quebec, and Massachusetts.

A. nemorosa is often found in shady woods.

Ecology

thumb|Pollination

The flowers are pollinated by insects, especially hoverflies. The seeds are achenes. - large lavender-blue flowers, often with seven petals (named after James Allen, nurseryman)

'Bowles' Purple' - purple flowers (named after E.A. Bowles, plantsman and garden writer)
'Bracteata Pleniflora' - double, white flowers, with green streaks and a frilly ruff of bracts
'Robinsoniana' - pale lavender-blue flowers (named after William Robinson, plantsman and garden writer)
'Royal Blue' - deep blue flowers with purple backs
'Vestal' - white, anemone-centred flowers
'Virescens' - flowers mutated into small conical clusters of leaves

Those marked are recipients of the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Anemonoides × lipsiensis, a hybrid between A. nemorosa and A. ranunculoides, has pale yellow flowers; A. × lipsiensis 'Pallida' is the best-known result of this cross. It has also been awarded the AGM.

Gallery

File:2023 05 - Flemingsbergsskogens naturreservat Anemonoides Nemorosa.tif|Anemonoides nemorosa in Flemingsbergsskogens naturreservat, Sweden

File:Anemone nemorosa LC0256.jpg|alt=A wood anemone in flower,|Form in Chemnitz, Germany

File:Zawilec gajowy cm02.jpg|Colonial growth in forest, Radziejowice, Poland

File:DoubleWoodAnemone.jpg|Double-flowered cultivar in Lincolnshire, England

File:Anemone nemorosa pink 240406.jpg|Pink-flowered plant in Hohenlohe, Germany

File:Anemone Nemorosa 6-9.jpg|Flowers with six, seven, eight and nine tepals

File:Wood Anemone (Anemonoides nemerosa).jpg|A flowering wood anemone.

Bosanemoon (Anemone nemorosa) 18-03-2024 (d.j.b.).jpg|Half-opened fragile flower bud of a Anemonoides nemorosa.

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