Pulsatilla vulgaris

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Pulsatilla vulgaris
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Genus: Pulsatilla
Species: P. vulgaris
Binomial name
Pulsatilla vulgaris
L.

Pulsatilla vulgaris (Pasque Flower, Common Pasque flower, Dane's Blood) belongs to the Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), native to western, central and southern Europe.

It grows to 15–30 cm high and when it is fruit-bearing up to 40 cm. The roots go deep into the soil (to 1 m). The finely-dissected leaves are arranged in a rosette and appear with the bell-shaped flower in early spring.

It grows in sparely wooded pine forests or meadows, often on a sunny sloping side with calcium rich soil. It is also the county flower of the English counties of Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. A large colony occurs on publicly accessible land in the Cotswolds, at the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust's Gloucestershire Pasqueflower Reserve.

It is the main ingredient in the French tonic hépatoum, taken for "crise de foie" and to help the production of bile.

Pulsatilla vulgaris

[edit] See also

  • Pasque flower is the name of other species of genus Pulsatilla as well