The wood anemone is a perennial herbaceous plant with a long, tough, creeping wood-stock running just below the ground. Its quick growth causes the rapid spread of this plant, forming huge colonies in the moist soil of woods and thickets.
The plant is hidden from view most of the year. It has no foliage, and looks just like a lumpy root in the soil. Then at the end of February it bursts into life, sending up deeply lobed leaves and single flowers on unbranched stems up to 20 cm tall. The flower heads have an average diameter of 2 cm when fully open.
The photograph was taken in ‘Lange Erlen’, a popular park on the outskirts of Basel, two days ago.