Images: ©Jouko Lehmuskallio
Wood Anemone
Anemone nemorosa
- Family: Buttercup Family – Ranunculaceae
- Growing form: Perennial herb.
- Height: 8–30 cm (3–12 in.)
- Flower: Regular (actinomorphic). Perianth-segments free, six or rarely seven, all petal-like, white, often flushed with pink. Carpels free, many, styles short. Stamens numerous.
- Leaves: One or two long-stalked basal leaves. Stem leaves in a whorl of three, stalked. Blade of all leaves trifoliolate, leaflets broadish, further 2–3-lobed, margins of lobes toothed.
- Fruit: Receptacle bears several oval, hairy, ca. 4 mm (0.15 in.) long achenes which are tipped by a short bristle.
- Habitat: Damp mixed forests, rich broadleaf woods, coppices, spruce swamps, waysides, ditchbanks.
- Flowering time: May–June.
The wood anemone, covering large areas on the forest floor, is a familiar spring flower especially in Southwestern Finland. It often flowers simultaneously with the hepatica (Hepatica nobilis). The time when the anemones flower is called the ´spring aspect´ of the forest. With this is meant the stage when the leaves of the trees not yet shade the flowers on the forest floor.
The wood anemone, also known as wind flower, is the county flower of Uusimaa, in the Districts of Oulu and Lapland it is a protected species. Like other members of the family Ranunculaceae it is poisonous.
