Anemone Encounter

Anemone encounters may sound like an enemy encounter, but they're far less confrontational. This joke was done better in a sea anemone cartoon, though sea anemones are not very closely related to the anemones I've seen walking in the woods. The anemones I see are small flowering plants in the buttercup family while sea anemones are invertebrate animals that sort of resemble plants [1].

Both these plants are native to New Jersey and are spring ephemerals. Both these plants spread when underground rhizomes spread out and sprout what appears to be a new plant near the "original" one; just because you see separate stems coming from the ground, it doesn't mean they're necessarily separate plants. Both these plants can also spread with the help of ants (myrmecochory), who feed on elaiosomes attached to their seeds then discard the rest, usually a little way away from the parent plant. While both these plants produce pollen that many bees and flower flies feast on early in the spring, and it was originally thought that neither produced nectar, recently evidence came to light that the Wood Anemone might also produce nectar [2].

The least controversial anemone that I've seen is this Wood Anemone a couple springs ago. 

April 29, 2021 at Washington Valley Park
Photo 128319901, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

The more controversial anemone is a flower I see more often, a Rue Anemone. They used to be in the same genus as the other anemones (including the Wood Anemone), but is now grouped with the meadow-rues, which seems to be a less well defined genus probably needs more attention. The name "Rue Anemone" was given to it because its flowers resemble the Wood Anemone but its leaves resemble the French Meadow-rue, no doubt contributing to the confusion regarding the genus in which to place it.

May 1, 2023 at Washington Valley Reservoir
Photo 278271383, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

[1] It sounds like some of the sea anemones were considered attractive and were named after the anemone flowers.

[2] This probably means that moths/butterflies - who are only seeking nectar - benefit from the nectar of Wood Anemones but get nothing from the nectar-less Rue Amenomes.

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