Pulsatilla is a genus that contains about 40 species of herbaceous perennial plants native to meadows and prairies of North America, Europe, and Asia. Common names include pasque flower (or pasqueflower), wind flower, prairie crocus, Easter flower, and meadow anemone. Several species are valued ornamentals because of their finely-dissected leaves, solitary bell-shaped flowers, and plumed seed heads. The showy part of the flower consists of sepals, not petals.
The common name pasque flower refers to its flowering period in the spring during Passover (in pāsaḥ).
Taxonomy
The genus Pulsatilla was first formally named in 1754 by the English botanist Philip Miller. The type species is Pulsatilla vulgaris, the European pasque flower. The genus is placed in the tribe Anemoneae within the family Ranunculaceae. The tribe has been shown repeatedly to be monophyletic in molecular phylogenetic studies, but the number of genera recognized within the tribe and their relationship has varied. Multiple studies have shown that Pulsatilla forms a monophyletic group,
<!--ref name=hoot1994>Hoot, S. B., J. D. Palmer, and A. A. Reznicek. 1994. Phylogenetic relationships in Anemone based on morphology and chloroplast DNA variation. Systematic Botany 19: 169–200. </ref>-->
- Anemone pulsatilla , Wildflowers index, Department of Horticultural Science of NC State University
- Gregory L. Tilford 1997. Edible and Medicinal plants of the West, Mountain Press Publishing preview
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110609183252/http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/09AE8029-A000-48F8-B79F-521B7EA87E61/0/pasque.pdf] - "Pasqueflower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) Local species action plan for Cambridgeshire, 1999"