Pulsatilla Miller

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1964, Flora Europaea - Volume 1. Lycopodiaceae to Platanaceae, Cambridge University Press : 219-220

16. Pulsatilla Miller 1

Caespitose perennial herbs with a stout stock. Leaves usually 2- to 4-pinnately or -palmately divided, often sericeous when young. Cauline leaves usually sessile and united at base. Flowers solitary. Perianth-segments usually 6, silky beneath; nectarsecreting staminodes present. Styles elongating and feathery in fruit. The species are usually local, probably mainly owing to Postglacial climatic changes and intolerance of ploughing, shade and bad drainage; they display considerable variation in pubescence, dissection of leaves and size and colour of perianth-segments. These characters have been used as a basis for specific distinction, but correlations between characters that are reliable within a small area break down when larger areas are considered. The variation, in fact, appears to be of the ‘ dissected continuous’ type, rather than the discontinuous kind met with in related genera. The variation does not often appear to fall into the geographical pattern characteristic of subspecies. For example some populations of P. grandis from C. Europe do not seem to be morphologically distinguishable from P. vulgaris from N.W. Europe, though both differ markedly from some populations of P. vulgaris from France.

Literature: D. Aichele & H. W. Schwegler, Feddes Repert. 60:

1-230 (1957).; K. Krause, Bot. Jahrb. 78: 1-68 (1958). 1 Cauline leaves shortly petiolate, resembling the basal but smaller

2 Terminal segments of mature leaves not divided to midrib; lamina distinctly pubescent 1. alpina

2 Terminal segment of mature leaves divided to midrib; lamina almost or quite glabrous 2. alba

1 Cauline leaves sessile, divided into linear segments and not closely resembling the basal

3 Basal leaves palmately divided 9. patens

3 Basal leaves pinnately divided

4Basal leaves evergreen, 1-pinnate; segments lobed; flowers usually white 3. vernalis

4Basal leaves withering in autumn, 2- to 4-pinnate; flowers usually purple

5 Flowers erect

6 Basal leaves pinnate, with 3-5 primary segments, the terminal long-stalked; segments pinnatifid; plant persistently lanate 8. halleri

6 Basal leaves 3- to 4-pinnatisect, with 7-9 primary segments; plant at first sericeous, then glabrescent 7. vulgaris

5 Flowers nodding

7 Perianth-segments less than 11 times as long as stamens, recurved at apex 4. pratensis

7 Perianth-segments at least twice as long as stamens, not recurved at apex

8 Cauline leaves with c. 25 lobes; flowers bluish to dark violet 5. montana

8 Cauline leaves with c. 20 lobes; flowers reddish or sometimes dark violet 6. rubra