365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Western Anemone, Anemone Occidentalis
Day 285: Today I bring you one of the most mispronounced flowers of Mount Rainier National Park: Western Uh-NEM-uh-nee. It is not a "an enemy" or any other amusing confusion of the consonants. Let's practice: "uh (pause), NEM (emphasized, pause), uh (pause), nee," M in the middle, Ns on the ends, "uhN-eM-uhN-ee." Now try it three times fast from memory, Anemone is not an enemy.
Most people recognize Western Anemone when it is in its gone-to-seed clothes, but a smaller percentage readily identify it when it is in flower. The seed stage looks like a mop-head or as a Trekkie friend termed it, "Tribble-on-a-stick." In fact, an alternate common name for it is "Mouse-on-a-stick," and the feathery nature of its achenes provide yet another from the manner in which the seeds disperse: Windflower. It is also sometimes called Western Pasqueflower, so if your tongue simply cannot handle the twists and turns of "Uh-NEM-uh-nee," you have plenty of other options.
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