CROWFOOT FAMILY RANUNCULACEAE 
TALL ANEMONE. THIMBLEWEED 
Anemone virginiana L. 
According to the Greek poets the Anemone originated 
in the tears dropped by Venus while she was grieving in 
the forest over the death of her sweetheart, Adonis, and 
all sorts of mystic qualities have 
been attributed to these plants. 
Present knowledge, however, 
forces us to abandon most of the 
ancient beliefs and we are left 
only the fact that the roots of 
some species have certain medic- 
inal qualities. 
The Tall Anemone or Thimble- 
weed is found in woods and meadows 
from Maine to Minne- 
sota and southward, and 
blooms from June to 
August. It has a stout 
hairy stem 2-3 feet tall 
and usually branching 
at the involucre. Leaves 
forming the involucre 
are 2-§ but usually 3. 
The basal leaves are 
long petioled but other- 
wise similar to those of 
the involucre. 
The flowers are borne 
on long peduncles, of which the earliest one is naked and the rest 
with a pair of bracts near the middle. The § petallike sepals 
are white or greenish white, and the stamens and pistils are 
numerous. The fruits are akenes clustered to form an oblong 
or somewhat cylindrical head sometimes 1 inch high or more, 
and from which the plant gets the name Thimbleweed. 
The Silky Thimbleweed, Anemone cylindrica Gray, is a smaller 
plant with a grayish pubescence and a longer head of fruit. It grows 
on barren rocky knolls and other open places from eastern New 
Brunswick and northern New Jersey to Manitoba and Kansas, and 
is found also in the Rocky mountains. Its smaller flowers are 2-6 
on very long upright peduncles, all of which are naked. 
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