Pasqueflowers are in trouble in the UK

I posted these images to the FindYourselfInNature Instagram feed yesterday. Overnight I heard from a follower that the same flower, Pulsatilla vulgaris, is in danger of disappearing in the UK. We have a vertiable carpet of them for a few weeks in April and I just was not prepared to learn that, as the WildlifeTrusts.org website puts it – “The pretty-in-purple Pasqueflower is now a rare plant in the UK, restricted to just a few chalk and limestone grasslands. Steeped in legend, it flowers at Easter, so is known as the ‘anemone of Passiontide.” I’m so glad that the world-wide web can connect people with similar interests, but I do wish the news from far away was more often good than not-so-good.

Anyway, I enjoyed reading about the Wildlife Trusts had to say about our little purple early bloomer. I didn’t realize that it can be found in the UK- in fact it appears to be circumpolar in the northern hemisphere and found in a broad range of elevations from 300 to 12,000 feet above sea level. I learned that there is a Pasqueflower Reserve in the Cotswolds, that it is listed with a Conservation Status as Near Threatened, and that it is sometimes called the Anemone of Passiontide.

I love that name- I will do my best from this day forward to afford my pretty, purple, early-riser with the respect it deserves.