But it isn't Easter yet...

Easter Day is not until 12 April and yet our Pasque Flowers, Pulsatilla vulgaris, are coming into bloom. The word 'pasque' is, like Paschal, derived from a word meaning Easter*.


I was discussing this with our next-door neighbour, Svetlana. She and her husband Vladimir are from Moldova and when she asked me what the flowers were she told me that in Moldova they are known by a very similar name, also with the Easter connotation.


Though in flower, the leaves of this lovely plant have not yet developed and this is clear from my photograph.

Pulsatilla vulgaris, formerly Anemone pulsatilla.

Our garden, Stefen Hill, Daventry. 6 March, 2020

Our native Pasque Flower from eastern Northamptonshire is a rich purple colour and the red form currently blooming in our front garden is perhaps from the Alps, maybe accounting for its rather early flowers.

Until about 1960 the Pasque Flower was known as Anemone pulsatilla but was transferred to the genus Pulsatilla as more information and material was obtained from overseas. A similar thing has happened to the celandine, which by chance I also saw today. Until fairly recently it was regarded as a species of Ranunculus, being known as Ranunculus ficaria but it has been transferred to the genus Ficaria. Most modern books now call it Ficaria verna.

The petals of the Pasque Flower are not really distinguishable from sepals and, as I have oft mentioned before (You have indeed, ad nauseam, Ed.), botanists usually refer to them as tepals or even simply as perianth segments. With buttercups and the celandine this problem does not occur as the petals and sepals clearly differ from each other.

Ficaria verna, formerly known as Ranunculus ficaria. Near

Southbrook, Daventry, 6 March, 2020

The word celandine is derived from the Greek word chelidon, meaning a swallow. It has been suggested that this is because it begins to flower at about the same time as swallows appear. Perhaps this may have been true in Mediterranean regions centuries ago but in modern Britain celandine flowers have usually long gone before the first swallows arrive.

* But, I hear you say, the Latin word pascuum means 'of pastures'. The Pasque Flower is indeed sometimes found in pastures so the name could refer to that. As Shakespeare put it: 'You pays yer money, you takes yer pick!'