Anemone canadensis (Windflower)

USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. Vol. 2: 99.

USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA NRCS. Wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Where Commonly Found: Meadows, fields, shores of rivers and lakes.  CT (rare), MA, ME, NH, NY, VT.
How to Identify:
(For unfamiliar words: Wikipedia Glossary of Botanical Terms).
Go Botany Key for Anemone canadensis,
Missouri Botanical Garden’s description of Anemone canadensis.  Click on more images.

Flower Color:  White
Flower Type:  Radial.  Flowers are 1″ – 1-1/2″ wide, singles on long stalks.  What appears as petals is actually sepals.
Flower Time:  May to June
Leaf Arrangement:  Basal, whorled stem leaflets.  Hairy stems.
Leaf Type:  Basal leaves are 2″-6″ long, with long petioles, deeply cut into 5 – 7 lobes, sharply toothed.  Stem leaves are usually 3 lobes and whorled in groups of 3.
Height:  1′-2′
Seed Collection:  Fruit are flattened, beaked achene, 1/8″ – 1/4″ long, gathered in a round spiky head.  At maturity, the fruit is dry, fuzzy and flattened, 1/8″-1/4″, with a persistent style forming a long beak 1/16″-1/4″  long.  These form from the cluster of pistils and separate when mature.

Attracts:  Beneficial Insects
Use:  Garden or Naturalizing
Light:  Full Shade to Part Shade
Hardiness Zone:  3 to 8   USDA Zone Map
Soils:  Dry to Moist
Notes:  Lovely early flowering ground cover, very suitable for a shady pollinator garden, offers early flowering.  Poisonous if eaten in large quantities, irritating to the mouth.
Native to NH, MA, NY, RARE IN CT, native to upper Midwest:  Biota of North America Program (BONAP) – North American Plant Atlas (NAPA).