Pulsatilla cernua

Pulsatilla cernua, the nodding or narrow-leaf pasque-flower (Korean pasque flower), is a low perennial herb of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) native to north-eastern Asia, including China, Korea, Japan and the Russian Far East. It grows from a stout, blackish rhizome and reaches about 15 to 45 cm in height, the whole plant densely clothed in long, soft, silky hairs. The basal leaves are deeply divided into narrow segments and emerge with the flowers in spring. Each leafless flowering stem bears a single, bell-shaped, nodding flower with six dark red to purple, silky-hairy petaloid sepals surrounding a central boss of numerous yellow stamens. As the seeds ripen the styles elongate into long, feathery, silvery plumes that aid wind dispersal, forming the characteristic shaggy seed-head. It grows on dry, sunny slopes, alpine meadows, rocky ground and grassland. Like other buttercups the fresh plant is acrid and toxic, containing ranunculin which yields the irritant protoanemonin.