Pulsatilla vulgaris Pasqueflower RR DD N
This once common flower is increasingly hard to find and is now very local although at some of its sites there are plenty. As its name suggests it flowers around Easter time. It is arguably one of our most attractive native plants and many cultivars are always available at nurseries and garden centres.
In Geoffrey Grigson's The Englishman's Flora he explains that it is also known as Dane's Flower as the flowers appeared on the great chalk earthworks such as the Devil's Dyke in Cambridgeshire where it is still found today. Such large works were supposed to be the work of the Danes and so the folk lore said that the flowers came from the blood of the Danes
Pulsatilla vulgaris is now found at a few sites in central and eastern England. There are no records form Ireland, Wales or Scotland.
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| Pulsatilla vulgaris Pasqueflower |
Therfield Heath, Hertfordshire 9th April 2010
Added on 21st April 2005, updated 31st July 2011, updated 20th January 2021