My annual pilgrimage this week to see the wild Pasque flowers on Church Hill, Therfield Heath, Herts. turned out to coincide with the end of their flowering period. They are a bit early this year. Luckily Pulsatilla vulgaris seed heads are as delightfully attractive as the flowers.
And there were still enough flowers to enjoy in any case.
I spent some time admiring their furry stalks and involucres
Most of the flowers on the heath are short and the bowl of purple petals seems to float over that fuzzy ruff
And it is not often that you see such hairy petals.
Many of the plants were well advanced in seed production (16/04/2019)
A freshly revealed seed head is a thing of beauty
Nevertheless, there were plenty of pollinators visiting the remaining flowers, so there will be plenty more seed heads to come.
I was trying to remember earlier this week who posted about wild pulsatillas growing fairly close to where they lived. My fingers were crossed this year’s visit would appear before too long and here it is!
Ha yes, I try not to post about it every year, but seeing the seed heads was a bit different and interesting. Cheers for linking too!
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I suspect Pasque flowers might be named for the paschal season — do they traditionally bloom around Easter? I was delighted to see the word ‘involucre’ as well. I just learned that their presence or absence is a way to distinguish between our two species of wine cups.
Yes, you are right that they get their name from their Easter flowering (somewhat optimistically said to start blooming on Good Friday!). Well, in any case their season is March to the beginning of May. I have to admit to not knowing the ‘ruff’ was called an involucre until I looked it up, but now I know why Salvia involucrata and Davidia involucrata are so called! So now I am off to look up wine cups …
This was lovely. Great job.
Thank you … it was a pleasure to visit again!
One of the last remaining wild stands – so beautiful!
Yes … pretty fortunate to live nearby really!
Wonderful flower. I would love to see them in the wild!
Yes, they are special and I am lucky to be so close. What shocks me though is how long it took before I even discovered them.
Nice set of shots. The first shot reminds me of those physics demontrations where they have the person (usually, a kid) place their hand on the Van de Graaf generator and the hair stands straight up and out. Nice that these plants do that all on their own. 🙂
I think that every physicist (myself included) have had a go on one of those generators. But you are right, sometimes kids get a go too!