Anemone narcissiflora : Narcissus Wind-flower

Scientific Name:

Kingdom: Plantae

Division:

• Tracheophyta (vascular)
• Spermatophyta (seed bearing)
Angiospermae (enclosed seed)

Class: Dicoteldonae (two seed-leaves)

Family: Ranunculaceae (Crowfoot/Buttercup Family)

Genera: Anemone (Wind-flower) (Gk. anemos = wind; possibly referring to the habitat of these plants in exposed windy places)

Species: narcissiflora (Gk. Narkissos= a beautiful youth who pined away for love of his own reflection )

English Name(s):

Narcissus Wind-flower, Narcissus-flowered Anemone

First Nation Names:

Structure:

• Plant tufted, herbaceous (not woody) with colourless acrid (bitter) juice.
• Stems 30-60cm high, sparingly villous (long fine hairs), glabrescent (mostly hairless) in age.
• From a thick fibrous erect-ascending rhizome (rootstock).

Leaves:

• Basal leaves long-petioled (stalked).
• Blades ternately divided, sharply lobed to below the middle, into linear segments.
• Cauline (on stem) leaves sessile (no stalk), whorled and forming a leafy involucrum (ring) below the flowers.

Reproductive Parts:

• Flowers 1-5, perfect (bisexual) and of regular symmetry, on pedicels (stalks) of 1-15cm long.
• Sepals petal-like, creamy white or blueish tinged, 1.0-1.5cm long.
• Petals lacking.
• Ovaries superior (above floral parts).

Seed:

• Fruiting head globose (spherical) in shape.
• Fruit a dry, flat, achene, 6-9mm long, with a narrow wing, glabrous (hairless), blackish green.
• Styles (female part) when in fruit 0.8-1mm long.

Not to Be Confused With:

• Anemone multifida (Cut-leaf Windflower) which can be distinguished by its shorter stature and silky-villous achenes.
• Anemone drummondii (Many-headed Windflower) which can be distinguished by its shorter, densely woolly achenes.
• Anemone parviflora (Arctic Windflower) which can be distinguished by its rhizomatous (underground stems) rather than tufted nature.

Physiology:

• The fruits are dispersed by wind, with the hairy style acting as the organ of flight.

Life Cycle:

• Perennial

Seasonal Cycle:

• plants deciduous from rootstock.
• Finished blooming about second week of July.

Animal Uses:

• The flowers of these plants pruduce large amounts of pollen as a reward for insect pollinators, but very little nectar.
• Apparently Anemone (Windflower) species are not well liked as food by either domestic nor wild animals.

Habitat:

• Moist sites in woods and heathlands to arctic tundra.

Modern:

Industrial:

Medicinal:

• Plants are used by herbalists to treat abrasions, toothed ache and rheumatism.
• Plants contain the antibiotics anemonin and protoanemonin which are active against broad-spectrum bacteria.

Food:

• Leaves are eaten in salads.
• Rootstocks are boiled or eaten raw.
• Caution: These plants are related to Delphinium and may cause simmilar poisoning. Anemone are listed as poisonous in many publications.

Traditional Gwich'in:

Folklore:

Industrial:

Medicinal:

Food:

Traditional Other:

Folklore:

• According to the Victorian Language of Flowers, Anemones symbolize berevity and expectation.
• Greeks legend says a beautiful nymph named Anemone was part of the entourage of chloris the goddess of flowers. She was lusted by the goddess's husband and was turned into a flower.
• Romans would pick the first Anemone of the year with the incantation "I gather thee for a remedy against disease".
• Some cultures believed breathing the air tainted by Anemone perfume would cause illness or breathing difficulties.

Industrial:

Medicinal:

• The Aleut used the plant to make a decoction that is taken to stop bleeding.
• Both Victorians and Romans used these plants to cure sex related difficulties.
• Roots of these plants were boiled and the decoction was used to treat paralysis, without much effect, and used for rheumatism and melancholy.
• The cotton from ripe seed heads was burned on hot coals and the smoke was inhaled to relieve headaches.

Food:

• Early spring growth at the top of the root is sometimes eaten by the people of the Aleutian Islands. It is said to have a waxy, mealy texture and taste.