Description
Eastern pasqueflower, Pulsatilla patens, is the county flower of Kanta-Häme. The protected Eastern pasqueflower is rare in the Kanta-Häme area and even rarer elsewhere in Finland.
The plant is a perennial grass plant that grows 10 – 30 cm tall, although after flowering in the nut stage it can be up to 50 cm high. It grows in light coniferous forests on the slopes of ridges (eskers) and blooms in May. The very large, even over 7 cm large, bell-shaped flowers are variably blue – blue-violet. The flower stem have white hairs and a small “leaf tuft” in addition to the showy flower. The actual leaves of the pasqueflower grow after flowering.
Today, the highly endangered plant has become rarer after the end of forest grazing and forest fires, and thoughtless collection of flowers and moving them to one’s own garden has also reduced its numbers. Attempts are being made to help the survival of the pasqueflowers by planting plants in new growing locations, and often the growing locations are not shared so that the plants can be left alone.
