Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Blue windflower

(Anemone oregana)

galery
en

Description

Anemonoides oregana (commonly called Anemone oregana) is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family known by the common names blue windflower, Oregon anemone, and western wood anemone. It is native to the forests of Washington, Oregon, and northern California in western North America, generally below 7,000 feet (2,100 m) elevation. Anemone oregana is a perennial herb growing from a thick rhizome, generally 50–300 mm (2–12 in) high, but exceptionally to 350 mm (14 in). A single basal leaf made up of three large leaflets on a 40–200 mm (2–8 in) petiole may be present. The inflorescence consists of a single tier of three leaflike bracts and a single flower. The bracts are similar to the basal leaf when the latter is present. The terminal leaflet may have a petiole or may be sessile. Its margin is sharply toothed on the distal half or third and its tip is pointed. Lateral leaflets may have a single lobe. The flower has no petals but 5 to 7 petal-like sepals in any of several colors, usually blue or purple but sometimes reddish, pink, white, or bicolored. In the center of the flower are up to 75 thin stamens. The fruit is a cluster of achenes. The Oregon anemone was first formally named by Asa Gray in 1887. It has sometimes been treated as a subspecies or variety of A. nemorosa or A. quinquefolia. Anemone is a genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Plants of the genus are commonly called windflowers. They are native to the temperate and subtropical regions of all continents except Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. The genus is closely related to several other genera including Anemonoides, Anemonastrum, Hepatica, and Pulsatilla. Some botanists include these genera within Anemone. Anemone are perennials that have basal leaves with long leaf-stems that can be upright or prostrate. Leaves are simple or compound with lobed, parted, or undivided leaf blades. The leaf margins are toothed or entire. Flowers with 4–27 sepals are produced singly, in cymes of 2–9 flowers, or in umbels, above a cluster of leaf- or sepal-like bracts. Sepals may be any color. The pistils have one ovule. The flowers have nectaries, but petals are missing in the majority of species.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Ranunculales
Family:Ranunculaceae
Genus:Anemone
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