Description: This native perennial plant is about 3-6"
tall, consisting of a few basal leaves on long petioles and one or more
flowering stalks. On the lower part of each stalk is a whorl of 3 leaves, while
at the apex there is a single flower spanning 1–1½" across. Each
tripartite leaf is about 1" across and 1" long when fully mature. It is deeply
cleft into 3 lobes, which are often cleft into secondary lobes. In addition to
these lobes, there are coarse teeth with blunt tips along the margin. The upper
surface of each leaf has silky appressed hairs. The leaves are often reddish
purple when they first appear during the cool weather of spring, but they
eventually become green. The flowering stalks are densely covered with silky
hairs; they are usually some shade of reddish purple. The flower at the apex of
each stalk has a daisy-like appearance, which has 8-20 petal-like sepals. These
narrow sepals are light blue, light violet, white, or pink, and they are oblong
in shape. At the center of each flower there are multiple pistils with yellow
styles that are bunched together to form a head, which is surrounded by
numerous stamens with yellow anthers. There are no true petals. The large
flower buds are often light pink or purple and initially nod downward before
becoming erect. The blooming period occurs during mid-spring and lasts about 2
weeks. There is no floral scent. The head of carpels at the center of the
flower elongates with maturity and becomes woolly. The flattened achenes have a
beak. There is a tuberous swelling of the rootstock at the base of the plant
and rhizomes. Carolina Anemone spreads by reseeding itself and vegetatively by
means of its rhizomes.
Cultivation:
The preference is full or partial sun, dry conditions, and a gritty soil that
is sandy, gravelly, or rocky. The rootstock may rot away in soil that is too
moist and rich. Taller and more aggressive species of plants should be kept
away. Vegetative growth and development occurs during the spring.
Range & Habitat: Carolina Anemone is an uncommon
plant that occurs in scattered areas of northern and western Illinois (see
Distribution
Map). It is absent in southern Illinois. Habitats include dry upland areas
of prairies, sand prairies, gravel prairies, hill prairies, barrens with
scrubby trees or shrubs and scant ground vegetation, sandstone glades, thinly
wooded bluffs, and roadside embankments. Cultivated forms of this species are
occasionally grown in lawns, flower gardens, and cemeteries.
Faunal Associations: Information about floral-faunal
relations is limited. The flowers probably attract bees and flies during the
spring. The foliage is toxic and rarely eaten by mammalian
herbivores.
Photographic Location: A
flower garden in Urbana, Illinois.
Comments: Carolina Anemone produces flowers of
exceptional beauty. These flowers are quite large considering the small size of
the plant. Across its broad range (mainly in the southern United States), both
the flowers and leaves are variable in appearance. The flowers occur in
different pastel colors, different sizes, and vary in the number of petal-like
sepals. The cleft lobes of the leaves can be quite narrow or rather broad. This
showy species produces larger flowers with more petal-like sepals than any
other Anemone spp. in Illinois.