Wildflower Wednesday: False Rue Anemone

My little pocket wildflower garden is waking up!

It was my first wildflower garden. The False Rue Anemone and Dutchman's Breeches were already growing there and I transplanted Trillium from the way back woodland and Toothwort and Spring Beauties from the now disappeared front lawn. Their dormant roots are sheltered by The Dancing Tree and a large Shag Bark Hickory during the hot summer months, but, they magically reappear each spring.

Eastern False Rue-anemone, False Rue Anemone or Enemion biternatum is a sweet little Spring ephemeral in the Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). It's native to shady rich or calcereous woods & thickets; floodplain woods and limestone ledges. (slightly alkaline soil) and is native to Middle Tennessee.

it's easily overrun by invasives like garlic mustard, bush honeysuckle and wintercreeper

The delicate looking foliage of False Rue Anemone emerges in late winter and makes a beautiful leafy mat that grows about 6 inches high. The flowers, scattered here and there,  emerge as the days warm and the bloom period is at least a month long. It would make a lovely ground cover, but, like all Spring ephemerals, grows, blooms, gets fertilized, sets seed in a short period of time before it fades and retreats back underground.

False Rue Anemone only produces pollen

False Rue Anemone is pollinated by small bees and flies that visit it for its pollen.

The lovely five 'petaled' (sepals) flowers with the showy yellow center stamens would look wonderful planted with Mertensia virginica, Thalictrum thalictroides, Trillium grandiflorum, Trillium cuneatum, Polemonium reptans, Phloxes, Geranium maculatum,  Euonymus americanus, Philadelphus inodorus and Aesculus pavia.

If you can grow this cutie in your garden do, I promise that you will love it.  It's available from several reputable online nurseries and locally from GroWild Nursery.

xoxogail

The particulars

Plant type Perennial, Deciduous, True ephemeral (summer dormancy)    
Flowering Period: Early Spring, Mid-Spring
Flower Color: White         
Sun/Shade Conditions: Filtered Shade, Partial Shade
Soil Moisture: Average, Moist, can handle some flooding
Soil pH: Adaptable, Alkaline
Soil Type: Loam, Clay, Humus-rich

Native

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's wildflower celebration. Wildflower Wednesday is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Remember, it doesn't matter if they are in bloom or not; and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. It's all about celebrating wildflowers. Please leave a comment when you add your url to Mr Linky.



Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.