Anemone quinquefolia var. quinquefolia

Native

Moist to moderate moisture. Woods, forests, thickets.

April to June

White to pinkish, often pink on the underside

4″ to 8″

This is a 4″ to 8″ tall, delicate, erect perennial rising on a hairless stem from a slender, horizontal rhizome. The rhizomes grow quickly and the plant is often found carpeting large areas.

A sterile individual and a flowering individual may be produced from the same rhizome. A sterile individual is a solitary basal leaf at the top of a long leaf stalk rising from the ground. It is divided into 3 to 5 irregular leaflets that are deeply notched and unevenly toothed above the middle.

The flowering individual is an unbranched, erect stem topped by a whorl of 3 leaves and a single flower stem. The stem below the whorl of leaves is hairless. The stem leaves are similar to the basal leaf only smaller. The leaflets are roughly lance-shaped, widest above the middle, and taper to a wedge-shaped base.

The flower stem (the stem above the whorl of leaves) is unbranched. The flower is white to pinkish, 1″ wide, with 4 to 6 (usually 5) petal-like sepals and 30 to 60 stamens.

The above-ground portion of this perennial dies back by mid-summer, leaving only the underground rhizome to await the next spring.

Wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia var. bifolia), the western variety, has central stems that are covered below the whorl of leaves with soft, spreading, shaggy, unmatted hairs. It does not occur in Minnesota.