Lyall’s Anemone (Anemone lyallii)

Mt. Hood N.W.A., OR, 7/2012.

Named after David Lyall (1817-1895), a globetrotting Scottish botanist, surgeon, and British Naval officer, who spent time and discovered plants in Greenland, both poles, New Zealand, the Mediterranean, and the pacific northwest. While taking part in a survey of the boundary line between British Columbia and the United States Dr. Lyall acquired an impressive collection of plants. This collection so impressed his friend Sir William Hooker of London’s Kew Garden fame, that he was given a post at Kew to document his extensive collection. He has many plant species named in his honor, including this anemone, the exalted New Zealand buttercup Ranunculus lyallii, and a whole genus of Antarctic cushion plants, Lyallia. His peer on the US-Canadian Boundary Commission described him thus:

“tho’ not a very talkative man, we get curious yarns from him at times.”
–Lt. Samuel Anderson, R.E.