Pulsatilla vulgaris (Pasque Flower, Common Pasque Flower, Dane's Blood, and Purple Cowbell) belongs to the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, found locally on calcareous grassland in Europe. It used to be considered part of the Anemone genus, to which it is closely related.
This is an herbaceous perennial plant. It develops upright rhizomes, which function as food-storage organs. Its leaves and stems are long, soft, silver-grey, and hairy. It grows to 15-30cm high and when it is fruit-bearing up to 40cm. The roots go deep into the soil, up to 1m down. The finely dissected leaves are arranged in a rosette and appear with a bell-shaped flower in early spring. The purple flowers are followed by distinctively silky seed heads which can persist on the plant for many months. The flower is "cloaked in a myth"; one legend has it that Pasque flowers sprang up in places that had been soaked by the blood of Romans or Danes because they often appear on old barrows and boundary banks. Pulsatilla vulgaris grows in sparsely wooded pine forests or meadows, often on a sunny sloping side with calcium-rich soil.
While the main variety of Pulsatilla vulgaris has purplish flowers; variants include "Rubra" (red flowers) and "Alba" (white flowers). Pulsatilla vulgaris is listed on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and as "Vulnerable" in Britain on the Red Data List. This plant has also gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Article excerpt is from Wikipedia.org under the Creative Commons License
Image is reused under the GNU Free Documentation License
Add comment
Comments