''Anemonastrum canadense'',

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

''Anemone canadensis'', the Canada anemone, round-headed anemone, round-leaf thimbleweed, meadow anemone, windflower, or crowfoot, is a

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

perennial flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae. It is native to moist meadows, thickets,

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

banks, and lake shores in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, spreading rapidly by underground

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

s. It is valued for its white flowers.

Description

The Canada anemone has shoots with deeply divided and toothed basal

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

on petioles. They grow from

ascending ''Ascending'' is a science fiction novel by the Canadian writer James Alan Gardner, published in 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints.HarperCollins, Avon, HarperCollins Canada, SFBC/Avon; paperback edition 2001, Eos Books. ...

caudices A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is ...

on long, thin

s. The shoots are tall, and leaves are by . Flowers with about 5 white,

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

-like sepals and 80-100 yellow

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s bloom from late spring to summer on stems above a cluster of leaves. The sepals are obovate (with the base slightly tapered) and by . When they are pollinated, the green pistils in the middle of the flower become a rounded to slightly lengthened seed head. The seeds are

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not ope ...

s, with an almost round body and a beak.

Taxonomy

The species was first described in 1768 by Carl Linnaeus, as ''Anemone canadensis''. As traditionally and broadly

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

, the genus '' Anemone'' has repeatedly been shown not to be

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

, with genera such as '' Clematis'' and '' Pulsatilla'' embedded within it. As part of creating monophyletic genera,

Sergei Mosyakin Sergei Leonidovich Mosyakin (born 30 November 1963) is a Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demogra ...

expanded the genus '' Anemonastrum'' to include ''Anemone canadensis'' as ''Anemonastrum canadense''.

Distribution

''Anemonastrum canadense'' is native to Canada and the west central and eastern United States.

Uses

''Anemonastrum canadense'' was used medically by North American Indigenous peoples as an astringent, as a

styptic An antihemorrhagic (antihæmorrhagic) agent is a substance that promotes hemostasis (stops bleeding). It may also be known as a hemostatic (also spelled haemostatic) agent. Antihemorrhagic agents used in medicine have various mechanisms of action: ...

for wounds, sores, nosebleeds, and as an eyewash. The root was respected by Plains tribes and used for many ailments.

Toxicity

It is likely that most anemones contain similar caustic irritants to other members of the family Ranunculaceae.Foster, Steven and James A. Duke. ''Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants'', "Peterson Field Guides", Houghton, Mifflin 1990 edn.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q91249630, from2=Q2198861 canadense Flora of Canada Plants used in traditional Native American medicine Flora of the United States Plants described in 1768