Pulsatilla nuttalliana

Pulsatilla nuttalliana, known as American pasqueflower, prairie pasqueflower, prairie crocus, or simply pasqueflower, is a flowering plant native to much of North America, from the western side of Lake Michigan, to northern Canada in the Northwest Territories, south to New Mexico in the southwestern United States. Pasqueflower is the provincial flower of Manitoba and the state flower of South Dakota.

Description

The flowers of Pulsatilla nuttalliana develop before their foliage, blooming while the leaves are just beginning to emerge. The stalk supporting the flower can be quite fuzzy or nearly smooth in texture, but never completely hairless. A ring of three very divided bracts, surround the flowering stalk below the flower head. They are very dissimilar to the leaves. Each flower is at the end of a separate stalk, but each plant may have many flowers or a single bloom. The flowers have five to eight sepals of a lavender or blue purple color, and sometimes pale or nearly white in color. Plants that have higher numbers of sepals on flowers will usually revert to having the more common six in future years. The petals are oblong to elliptic in shape. The flowers resemble upward facing bells and are 20–40 mm long. The center of the flower is bright yellow with a mound of 150–200 stamens surrounding the many styles. The blooming period of P. nutalliana is very early, the flowers often emerging as soon as the snow melts and then being snowed upon again. The flowers will close up during colder weather and reopen during warmer periods.