Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Canada Anemone is a native erect perennial forb, growing to 2-1/2 feet high with the flower stalk, which is an a aerial stem from the root, held above the leaves.

The main leaves are large basal leaves which rise from the root on long stalks; they are more broad than long, and deeply palmately divided into 3 to 5 divisions; each division is oblong with a pointed tip and is variously cleft and toothed. The leaf base is either truncate or shaped like an arrowhead. The leaves on the flowering stem are really involucral bracts of the flower, similar in design to the basal leaves but smaller and not stalked and usually in a whorl of 3 and if there is a second tier, that is usually a pair. These are not directly beneath the flowerhead as most bracts are but further down the stalk. The underside of all leaves and bracts may be hairy, the upper surfaces show a distinct vein pattern. Aerial stems of various plant species frequently have bracts but not true leaves.

Flowers are solitary on tall stalks above the bract whorl. The stalk can be smooth to hairy. Rarely are there multiple flowers and then no more than 3. Sepals only, no petals or corolla; usually 5 sepals but there can be 4 to 6 in number. The sepals are white, ovate in shape. The flowerhead has 80 to 100 stamens with yellow anthers. These surround a cluster of yellow-green pistils.

Seed: Fruit at maturity is a dry fuzzy flattened ellipsoid shaped winged seed, 3 - 6 mm x 3.5 - 6 mm, with a persistent style forming a long beak 2 to 6 mm long. These form from the cluster of pistils and separate when mature. Seeds are difficult to germinate. Like most Anemones they require a cold moist resting period followed by a warm moist period and then another cold moist period, with the seed germinating in the second year when planted outside. Best to let nature do it and wait for plants till the 2nd season or transplant a clump of the roots which transplant easily. Seeds must be kept in cold moist storage.

Habitat: Canada Anemone blooms in late spring, usually by June 1st and continues into mid-summer. It is found in parts of the Wildflower Garden in large groups as they grow and spread from caudices and underground rhizomes. It is a plant of open woodlands and cool moist prairies, in full to partial sun. In the home garden it can make a good ground cover beneath trees and shrubs but in a restricted setting it needs control as it is an aggressive spreader. For full flowering potential, it needs a mostly sunny, but somewhat moist area.

Names: The origin of the genus Anemone is obscure but is generally applied to what are called windflowers, and is thought by some to be from the Greek anemos, meaning 'wind.' But the studied opinion (see Stern, Ref. #37a, and Ref. #W7) is that consideration must also given to the god Adonis, who in the Greek myth was killed while hunting a boar and from his blood came a red windflower [Anemone coronaria] and the name is a corruption of an old Semitic word for Adonis. The species canadensis means 'of Canada.' The author name for the plant classification - 'L.' is for Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist and the developer of the binomial nomenclature of modern taxonomy.

Comparisons: The large size of this plant with its solitary white flower distinguish it from some white buttercups that have similar looking leaves. The closest species where there may be confusion due to the leaf shape will be the Thimbleweeds, Anemone cylindrica and A. virginiana, but only before flowering time. The Thimbleweeds have a yellow flower with a distinctive center cone.