When we were visiting the Columbia River Valley near Radium, we encountered many pasqueflowers in bloom in May.

• Anemone patens is frequently called prairie crocus.
• This perennial grows to about 30 cm from a long taproot and woody base.
• Several stems emerge with flowers developing before most of the leaves.
• Leaves are much divided into narrow linear segments.
• Purple cup-shaped flowers have 5 or 6 sepals and no petals.
• The saucer-shaped flower assists with heat retention in the early spring slight reflects off the reflective sepals.
• Sunlight is bounced around in the yellow stamens and the greyish pistils, warming the reproductive parts of the plant and assisting insects in early spring. Temperature testing has found that the interior of the flower can be as much as 10 degrees C (warmer).
• On the prairies and in the Columbia River Valley, pasqueflower is often the first to bloom, attracting early pollinators without any competition from other flowering plants.
• The flowers open in the sunlight, track the sun throughout the day, and close at night.
• Seeds develop in June and are lance-shaped, assisting insertion into the soil. The back of the seed has one-way hairs that absorb water. As it dries, it tends to twist the seed, “drilling” it into the ground.
• Click an image for a larger (lightbox) view.

• Long, silky grey hairs cover the stems and sepals, as seen in the photos above.
• Prairie crocus is long-lived but it sometimes takes a few years to get established before blooms appear.
• Seeds can be planted in the fall and need to be stratified over the winter.
• Other names for this pasqueflower are prairie smoke, prairie anemone, and windflower.
• Prairie crocus grows on the edge of the forest in open, sunny spots, often in sandy soil.
• The flowering period is usually only bout two weeks. After flowering, the stem grows longer and the leaves develop.
• After seeds fully develop, they are usually dispersed by the wind and then the stem and flowers die back to the ground.
• The plant is poisonous but First Nations people sometimes used it as part of a poultice for external skin treatments.
• Although this perennial does not grow in the Kamloops area, it is a welcome early spring arrival in the Rocky Mountain Trench, a few hours to our east.