Pasque Flower

Parts Usually Used

Anemone patens: Whole plant Pulsatilla vulgaris: Root

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Anemone patens: A perennial plant, the stem grows from 6-16 inches high and bears alternate, palmately dissected leaves with narrow, linear lobes. A solitary, terminal, erect flower features 5-6 petal-like, purplish-blue to whitish sepals, blooming in March and April. Pulsatilla vulgaris: A North American wildflower of early spring, having silky, hairy foliage and cup-shaped, bluish, solitary flowers.

Grow it close to a front walk or in a rock garden to enjoy its low flowers up close. It has been renamed Anemone pulsatilla. Plant is 1 foot tall and produces ferny leaves and purple campanulate flowers; entire plant is covered with silky hair. Full sun. Zones 6-9. Not heat tolerant. Pasque flower will do well in any well-drained, dryish soil in full sun. Start from firm, thick rootstock, planted in the fall, with the top of the rootstock at the soil surface.

Or start from seed, sowing as soon as the seed head ripens, placing seedlings in their permanent place in the spring. Set 8-12 inches apart in informal massings. Seedlings will bloom in 2 years. Apply fertilizer at the beginning of the growing season, and peat or leaf mold in the fall. Keep young plants weed-free so they can develop a good rootstock. Cut off old leaves in the spring.

Pasque flower is highly disease-resistant, but the rootstock will rot in wet conditions. Winter frost protection is not needed. There is also a white-flowered form, (Alba).

Where Found

Anemone patens: A perennial plant found on dry prairies, moist meadows, and woods from Illinois and Wisconsin to Texas, westward and northwestward, north to Alaska. Pulsatilla vulgaris: This pasque flower is native to northern and central Europe and western Asia.

Medicinal Properties

Anemone patens: Diaphoretic, diuretic, nervine, rubefacient (causing redness of the skin). Pulsatilla vulgaris: Stimulant

Legends, Myths and Stories

This very beautiful, perennial, early-flowering herb was given its common name (pasque is Old French for Easter) because it flowers near Easter, and it was once used to color Easter eggs. The Blackfeet Indians called pasque flower “Napi” and used the leaves as a poultice as a counter-irritant for rheumatism.

Uses

Historical herbalists applied dried, powdered Anemone patens externally to wounds. In homeopathic traditions, highly diluted preparations of the plant were administered for earaches, eye complaints, rheumatism, skin eruptions, coughs, bronchitis, asthma, tension, and menstrual irregularities. Homeopathic practitioners similarly utilized Pulsatilla vulgaris within their remedies.

Bibliography

The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. The Complete Medicinal Herbal , by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993 Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A. , Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine , by Dr.

A. , 27 Pine Street (Box 876) New Canaan, CT. 06840-0876. Copyright Verlag A. Vogel, Teufen (AR) Switzerland 1952, 1991 Indian Uses of Native Plants , by Edith Van Allen Murphey, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1958, print 1990 Prairie Smoke , by Melvin R. Gilmore, Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul, Minnesota 55101, copyright 1987.

, 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, first printed by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, in 1928, this Dover edition 1974 Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary , 15th Edition, F. A. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023