Wood Anemone
Anemone nemorosa
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Spreads about two metres a century — so a good carpet of it is genuinely ancient.
A low woodland perennial with deeply divided leaves in whorls of three and solitary white star-shaped flowers, often flushed pink or purple on the outside. Wood anemones appear before the bluebells in oak and hazel woodland around Dumfries, and also persist in old hedge banks that mark where woodland once stood.
Behaviour
The flowers track the sun and close and droop in dull weather and at night, protecting the pollen. Wood anemone sets seed only rarely in Britain and spreads instead by slow creeping rhizome — measured at a couple of metres per century — which makes a large colony one of the most reliable indicators of ancient woodland, and irreplaceable once lost.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Buttercups (Ranunculaceae)
- Height
- 5–15 cm
- Status
- Native; a strong ancient woodland indicator
Photo by Lilly M, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons