Pulsatilla patens
StarPulsatilla patens
Synonyms: Anemone pulsatilla var. patens
Western Herbalism Properties
Traditional Uses
Pulsatilla patens was widely used by Indigenous peoples of the northern Plains and northwestern North America. The Blackfoot used poultices and decoctions of the leaves and the whole plant as a hemostat to stanch bleeding, as a local analgesic, and externally for rheumatic pain. The Thompson, Okanagon and Carrier (Southern) of the interior plateau used preparations of the plant as an analgesic, for rheumatic complaints, and as a stimulant; the Cheyenne employed it as a topical and internal remedy for rheumatism, as a panacea, and ceremonially. The Chippewa, Omaha and Gitksan used the plant for headaches, lung complaints, sore eyes, and as a diaphoretic for fevers. Several tribes recognised the plant as poisonous when used incautiously, and small carefully prepared doses or external applications were the norm; children also used the feathery seed heads as toys.
Botanical Description
Pulsatilla patens is a low, densely silky perennial herb of the Ranunculaceae family growing 5-30 cm tall from a stout vertical caudex topped by a tuft of persistent leaf bases. Flowers appear before or with the new leaves in earliest spring. Flowering stems are erect, terete, hollow, 5-20 cm tall and densely covered in long spreading silky white hairs, with a whorl of three deeply dissected, sessile, leaf-like involucral bracts subtending the flower. Each plant produces one to several solitary, upright to nodding, broadly cup-shaped flowers 4-7 cm across with five to seven petaloid sepals coloured pale to deep blue-violet, lavender, or rarely whitish, and a dense central cluster of golden-yellow stamens surrounding numerous separate carpels. True petals are absent. Basal leaves develop after flowering, long-petioled, palmately divided to the base into three primary segments each again deeply two- or three-cleft into linear-lanceolate ultimate segments, densely silky on both surfaces. The fruit is a head of numerous achenes each prolonged into a long persistent feathery silvery-grey style 3-5 cm long, the whole head forming a striking globose plume. Native to dry open prairies, grasslands and open pine woodland across northern Eurasia and central and northern North America.
This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before using any herbal remedy, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking medications.
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