Pasque Flower
Pulsatilla patens
Pasque flower opens at the very start of the prairie season, sometimes through the last of the snow, and it flowers before it leafs out — silky purple cups on short hairy stalks rising straight out of bare ground. Every part above ground is covered in long silvery hairs that trap warmth around the flower, and the cup tracks the sun through the day, so its interior can run several degrees above air temperature. That warmth is much of the attraction for the earliest bees, which come for the heat as well as the pollen. After bloom the seed heads take over: each seed carries a long feathery plume, and a head of them catches low light like a tuft of smoke for weeks. It needs full sun, sharp drainage and no competition, and it is very long-lived once established but nearly impossible to move. Like others in its genus it is slightly toxic fresh, the compounds breaking down as the plant dries.
- Family
- Ranunculaceae
- Type
- wildflower
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 0.25–1 ft
- Spacing
- 0.25–0.5 ft apart
- Light
- sun
- Soil moisture
- dry
- Soil pH
- neutral, alkaline
- Bloom
- April, May, June
- Bloom colors
- white, blue, purple
- Wildlife value
- pollinators
- Landscape uses
- border, container
- Native states
- AK, CO, IA, IL, KS, MN, MT, ND, NE, NM, SD, TX, UT, WA, WI, WY