False Rue-anemone, Enemion biternatum Raf. Old-Isopyrum biternatum, Native Minnesota Wildflower plant, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Eastern False Rue Anemone	Enemion biternatum Raf. [Old classification was -Isopyrum biternatum]	Buttercup (RANUNCULACEAE)	Woodland	Spring
Other names and notes	("Isopyrum"). White 5-part flowers, 1/2" wide, in a small cluster or single with colored sepals, no petals and with leaflets in 3's, but not in whorls like the true Rue Anemone (Anemonella thalictroides) and the leaflets are more deeply lobed. Stem leaflets rounded and three-lobed whereas the basal leaves are long-stalked and more 2 to 3 times divided. Total height to 16", usually shorter. The fibrous roots of this plant are thickened at intervals; the seed vessel has two or three seeds instead of one, as in the anemones. One of the very early spring blooming plants in the Woodland along with Bloodroot and Hepatica, flowering in the sun before the trees leaf out.



Below: Note the deeply lobed leaves, not in a whorl, and the flower stems rising from the leaf axils.

Notes: Eloise Butler's records show that she first obtained this plant in 1908 from the Minnehaha area (near Ft. Snelling); additional plants in 1910 and 1911; then she also obtained over two hundred plants of this species on April 10-12, 1915 from an area at Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis that she called "Fairy Land". Her records use the older botanical name Isopyrum. Native to the SE Minnesota woods and most of the counties in the east portion of central Minnesota.

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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