Windflower (Anemone deltoidea)

Rainy Lake Road, Columbia Gorge, OR, 6/2014.

The genus name comes from the Greek anemos, meaning “wind”, so technically all anemones are “wind flowers,” but this is the only western variety that is usually called by that name. Found in moist forests at low and middle elevations in the Cascades and at the coast of Washington, Oregon and Northern California. We see them often in the western Gorge in May and June. Deltoidea means triangular, perhaps referring to the group of three leaves below the flowers. Compare to other anemones: Western Anemone and Oregon Anemone.