Wood Anemone

Wood Anemone, Anenome nemorosa has been such a welcome sight over this past week and a flower that grows over almost all of the British Isles seems a good start to the blogs of 2021.

In each of the blogs this year I am hoping to use some literature. I start with John Clare (1793-1864) who  enjoyed these blooms as much as we do and wrote in a poem entitled Wood Anemone of "weeping flowers in thousands pearled in dew" and their "clipt-frilled leaves" on slender stalks. A modern botanist might say the stem has a whorl of three leaf-like bracts. Which description do you prefer?

There were not thousands in bloom on the wooded banks of the Wye near Monmouth this week, more like dozens, but perhaps the thrill is greater for the first few of one of the earliest spring flowers! The name anemone comes from the Greek god of wind, Anemos, who scattered the flowers across the land to herald his coming in the spring. Another Greek myth has these blooms rising from Aphrodite's tears as they fell in the woodlands she wandered after the death of Adonis. However romantic these myths seem the plant is poisonous to humans. Incidentally, I was intrigued about nemorosa too- Latin for wooded or shady if you are interested!

This native plant from the Ranunculaceae family spreads very slowly, no more than six feet or so in a hundred years, through its creeping rhizomes. It is thus an indicator of ancient woodland. It can have a sharp musty smell on warm days which may have given rise to one of its folk names in Somerset: Smell Foxes. Other names refer to the shape of the flower: Granny's Nightcap in Somerset, Wiltshire and Warwickshire; and perhaps the less innocent Moll o' the Woods in Dorset and Warwickshire and Lady's Petticoat in Wiltshire. The solitary blooms are often flushed pink, especially on the outside as here.

I recently found out that what appear to be six or seven petals are in fact sepals. The flower has no petals. The pitcher-shaped stigmas just about visible here are surrounded by a ring of stamens. The plant is pollinated by hoverflies.

Lockdown means I will not be able to visit any new habitats for a while so blogs could be rather sporadic. I will only cover plants that I missed last year. There were a few! There is little point in repeating last year's material when it is still available. 

I hope you have enjoyed this short blog and perhaps been reminded of something you had forgotten.

Thank you for reading. 

Resources used

Flora Britannica Richard Mabey

The Englishman's Flora Geoffrey Grigson

Harrap's Wildflowers

Stace 4

Web searches included: 

https://www.plantlife.org.uk

https://www.botanical.com

http://www.seasonalwildflowers.com