Anemone altaica

Anemone altaica is a low, rhizomatous perennial herb of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), native to Siberia, the Altai and Central Asia, and parts of northern and western China, where it grows in moist coniferous and mixed woodland, forest clearings, and shaded mountain slopes. It is a spring ephemeral that arises from a slender, creeping, horizontal rhizome. Each flowering stem bears a whorl of three deeply divided, stalked involucral leaves, above which a single flower is borne. The flower has no true petals; instead the showy perianth consists of about eight to twelve (sometimes more) narrow, oblong tepals that are white, often tinged blue or violet beneath, surrounding a central cluster of numerous yellow stamens and several carpels. Flowering occurs in early spring before the forest canopy closes, and the plant dies back to the rhizome by summer. Like many Ranunculaceae it contains the acrid, blistering compound protoanemonin and is toxic to handle and ingest when fresh. It closely resembles the European wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa.