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Pulsatilla occidentalis
Also called Mountain Pasqueflower, Western Anemone, Western Pasqueflower
A low perennial wildflower from western North America with white or soft purple flowers that appear soon after snowmelt. It is a wild species rather than a common garden plant, and it grows from a caudex in cool, open, well-drained habitats.
Pulsatilla occidentalis, synonym Anemone occidentalis, the white pasqueflower or western pasqueflower, is a herbaceous species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Individuals are 10–60 cm (3.9–23.6 in) tall, from caudices, with three to six leaves at the base of the plant that are 3-foliolate, each leaflet pinnatifid to dissected in shape. Leaf petioles are 6–10 cm (2.4–3.9 in) long. Leaves have villous hairs and their margins are pinnatifid or dissected. Plants flower briefly mid-spring to mid-summer, usually soon after the ground is exposed by melting snow. The flowers are composed of five to seven sepals (sometimes called tepals), normally white or soft purple, also mixed white and blueish purple, one flower per stem. The sepals are 15–30 mm (0.59–1.18 in) long and 10–17 mm (0.39–0.67 in) wide. Flowers have 150–200 stamens.
Western pasqueflower likely contains ranunculin and protoanemonin, an irritant glycoside and its aglycone, as these are seen in most members of this genus and the plant's latex is irritating. It can be fatal to domestic animals, particularly to sheep, and should thus not be eaten by humans.
Alpine anemone · Pulsatilla bungeana · Narrow-leaf pasque-flower · Northeast Asian Pasque Flower · Greater Pasque Flower · Alpine Pasque Flower · Pulsatilla integrifolia · Mountain Pasque Flower · Pulsatilla nuttalliana · Eastern pasqueflower · Small Pasque Flower · Spring Pasque Flower
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pulsatilla occidentalis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
