About Anemone coronaria L.
Anemone coronaria L. is a herbaceous, perennial, tuberous plant. It typically grows 20 to 40 cm (7.9 to 15.7 in) tall, and rarely reaches 60 cm (24 in), spreading 15 to 23 cm (5.9 to 9.1 in) wide. It forms a basal rosette of a small number of leaves; each leaf has three leaflets, and each leaflet is deeply lobed.
Single flowers bloom from April to June, borne on tall stems that have a whorl of small leaves just below the flower. Each flower measures 3 to 8 cm in diameter, with 5 to 8 showy, petal-like tepals that are most often red, but may also be white or blue, and a black central region. Its pollen is dry, has an unsculpted exine, measures less than 40 nm in diameter, and is usually deposited within 1.5 meters of its source. The central mound of the flower is made up of tightly packed pistils, with a crown-like ring of stamens surrounding it—this structure gives the species its specific epithet coronaria. Each flower produces 200 to 300 seeds, and the plant forms hard black tubers to use as storage organs. Aside from bearing flowers that resemble poppies, the red single wild form of Anemone coronaria has flowers similar to those of the red single wild form of Ranunculus asiaticus.
This species is found along the Mediterranean littoral, ranging from Greece, Albania, southern Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and northern Arabia to the Sinai Peninsula. It extends sporadically east to Iran, and west along the Mediterranean shores of Italy, southern France, and North Africa.
In its wild habitat, A. coronaria flowers in winter, and is cross-pollinated by bees, flies, and beetles, which can carry its pollen over long distances.
Anemone coronaria was introduced to England before 1596, and it was described in Thomas Johnson's 1597 edition of John Gerard's Herball. It was already popular during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. By the start of the 18th century, breeders in France and Italy had already greatly expanded the range of flower colours available in cultivated varieties.
Today, Anemone coronaria is widely grown for its decorative flowers. It is hardy in USDA zones 7 through 10, and prefers full sun to partial shade. While it grows as a perennial in its native climate, it is typically grown as an annual from tubers in cooler climates. Tubers are usually planted in autumn when plants are kept potted in a greenhouse over winter, or planted in the ground in spring once all risk of frost has passed.
