Anemone - Bride of the West Wind

A perennial found throughout N. temperate and arctic regions -
flowers with 5 - 9 perianth - segments ranging from white to yellow,
pink or blue, but hybrids exhibit an even greater range of colour: the
flower stalks have small divided leaves two thirds of the way up, basal
leaves appear later. Family: Ranunculaceae. Over 150 species, Hepitica
nobilis has a long history of medicine in Europe.

The fragile and pretty Anemone derives its name from the Greek
'anemos', signifying the wind. For the Greeks, Anemone was the bride of
the west wind. At one time Anemone was on of the favourite nymphs of
Chloris, queen of flowers, who, jealous of the attention Zephyr, the
wind god paid to the graceful nymph, banished Anemone from her Court.
Zephyr turned her into a flower he could caress.

In olden times, wonderful powers were attributed to Anemone. Magicians
ordered that every person should gather the first Anemone that he saw
in the year as a remedy against disease, a tradition which continued in
Britain for many a year.

To the Dutch, she is the Easter flower, as she is to the French, when
wearing her purple blooms, and in Palestine, where she wears red,
Anemone is said to have originated from the drops of blod that flowed
from the wounds of Christ at the time of the Crucifixion, which
accounts for Anemone being one of the flowers chosen by the Christian
Church as a symbol of the Holy Trinity.

At the approach of rain, or night, the delicately tissued petals of the
wind flower are curled up as she goes to sleep and this is said to be
the wood fairy nestling inside the flower and drawing the petals
closely around itself.

The blooms of Anemone decked the halls of Venus and one old classic
legend tells how, as Venus, mourning her beloved Adonis, wanders
through the wood lands, Zephyr, god of wind, said to produce fruit and
flowers from the sweetness of his breath, watches Venus from afar, and
is so moved by her sorrow, that he turns each crystal tear into a
flower as it falls to earth:

"Wind flowers, we since these blossoms call,
So very frail are they,
Tear-drop from Venus' eye let fall,
Our wood anemone".

Thank you for reading this article, if you have any comments, or you
have a favourite flower you would like me to write about, please email
me Marilyn.Cameron@btinternet.com