Greater pasque flower

Pulsatilla grandis, the great pasque flower, is a low perennial herb of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) native to central and eastern Europe, where it grows on dry calcareous grasslands, steppe slopes and open pine woodland. It is closely allied to, and often treated within, the Pulsatilla vulgaris aggregate. The whole plant is densely clothed in long silky silvery hairs. Finely divided, feathery basal leaves are produced from a stout rootstock, usually expanding fully after flowering. In early spring it bears large, solitary, erect to nodding bell-shaped flowers with six violet to purple petal-like tepals surrounding a dense boss of golden-yellow stamens, the flower stalk subtended by a ruff of deeply dissected, hairy involucral bracts. After flowering the styles elongate into conspicuous long, silky, feathery plumes attached to the achenes, forming a silvery seed-head adapted to wind dispersal. All parts are acrid and toxic when fresh.