Species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae
Anemonoides nemorosa (syn. Anemone nemorosa), the wood anemone, is an early-spring flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to Europe.[1] Other common names include windflower, European thimbleweed,[2] and smell fox, an allusion to the musky smell of the leaves.[3] It is a perennialherbaceous plant growing 5–15 cm (2–6 in) tall.
Description
Anemonoides nemorosa is a rhizomatousherbaceous perennial plant less than 30 centimetres (12 in) in height. The compound basal leaves are palmate or ternate (divided into three lobes).[4]: 106 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[5]: 28 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 2 centimetres (0.8 in) 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.[4]
Wood sorrel Oxalis acetosella, which grows in similar shaded places, can be readily distinguished by its 3-parted, clover-like leaves and smaller flowers with only white petals and 5 sepals.[5][6]
A. nemorosa is often found in shady woods.[6] The species is common in the British Isles[5] but it spreads very slowly there, by as little as six feet per century, so it is often used as an indicator for ancient woodland.[9]
Ecology
The flowers are pollinated by insects, especially hoverflies.[10] The seeds are achenes.[4]
In cultivation
Many cultivars have been selected for garden use, The RHS Plant Finder 2008–2009 lists 70 cultivars sold by nurseries in the UK. Some of the most widely available are:
'Alba Plena' - double white
'Allenii'agm[11] - 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'agm[12] - pale lavender-blue flowers (named after William Robinson, plantsman and garden writer)
'Royal Blue' - deep blue flowers with purple backs
'Vestal'agm[13] - white, anemone-centred flowers
'Virescens'agm[14] - flowers mutated into small conical clusters of leaves
Anemonoides × lipsiensis, a hybrid between A. nemorosa and A. ranunculoides,[15] has pale yellow flowers; A. × lipsiensis 'Pallida' is the best-known result of this cross. It has also been awarded the AGM.[16]
Gallery
Anemonoides nemorosa in Flemingsbergsskogens naturreservat, Sweden
Half-opened fragile flower bud of a Anemonoides nemorosa.
References
^ a b c"Anemonoides nemorosa (L.) Holub". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
^"Anemone nemorosa Wood Anemone, European thimbleweed PFAF Plant Database". Plants for a Future. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
^"Wood anemone". UPM Forest Life. 2019-05-13. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
^ a b cStace, C. A. (2010). New Flora of the British Isles (Third ed.). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-521-70772-5.
^ a b cClapham AR, Tutin TG, Warburg EF (1981). Excursion Flora of the British Isles (3 ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23290-2.
^ a bParnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012. Webb's An Irish Flora. Cork University Press. ISBN 978-185918-4783
^Dutton, Bryan E.; Keener, Carl S.; Ford, Bruce A. (1997). "Anemone". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 3. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2020-11-28 – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
^" Anemone nemorosa". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
^"Plantlife - Wood Anemone". Archived from the original on 2021-03-08. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
^Blank, S. and M. Wulf. on seed production and pollinator biology of Anemone nemorosa (Buschwindröschen). Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF). 2008.
^"Anemone nemorosa 'Allenii'". RHS. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
^"Anemone nemorosa 'Robinsoniana'". RHS. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
^"Anemone nemorosa 'Vestal'". RHS. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
^"Anemone nemorosa 'Virescens'". RHS. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
^Astuti, Giovanni; Marconi, Giancarlo; Pupillo, Paolo; Peruzzi, Lorenzo (17 May 2019). "Anemonoides × lipsiensis comb. nov. (Ranunculaceae), new for the Italian flora". Italian Botanist. 7: 101–105. doi:10.3897/italianbotanist.7.35004. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
^"Anemone × lipsiensis 'Pallida'". RHS. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
Further reading
Shirreffs, D. A. 1985. Anemone nemorosa L. Journal of Ecology 73: 1005-1020.