This 1-3 feet tall plant with multiple, erect, silky-hairy stems and showy, greenish-white flowers spreads by rhizomes and forms colonies in wet areas. Note the secondary leaves (involucral bracts) whorled at mid-stem, the fuzzy petal-like sepals, and the long, cylindrical head of stamens that resembles a thimble.

FLOWERS: May–July. Multiple flower stems (peduncles) 4–12 inches long branch from mid-stem leaf-like bracts; flowers 3/4 inch diameter with 5 greenish-white, petal–like sepals 3/16–1/2-inch (5–12 mm) long; top surface hairless, underside silky-hairy; 50–75 stamens in elongated column. The seed head elongates into a cylindrical, cottony-tufted  column 3/4–1 3/4-inches long (2–4.5 cm).

LEAVES: Basal, 5–10 blades on 3 1/2–8 1/4-inch (9–21 cm) long stalks (petioles), shinny-green, to 4 inches wide (10 cm), palmate with 3 lance-shaped, deeply cut lobes. Similar leaf-like bracts are whorled mid-way up the stem.

HABITAT: Gravel-loam, dry to moist soils; mountain meadows, open forests, stream banks, canyons, roadside ditches, pastures; prairies, foothills, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: 5,500-7,700 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, CT, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE , NH, NJ, NM, NY, ND, OH, PA, RI, SD, VT, WI, WY;  Canada.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Five species of Anemone in NM: Canada Anemone, A. canadensis with white flowers and simple (though lobed) basal leaves; Pasque Flower, A. patens (Pulsatilla patens), has white to pale-blueish flowers 1 1/2–3 inches wide; Cutleaf Anemone, A. multifida, in northern NM, has pink to maroon flowers and silky-hairy, compound basal leaves; Desert Anemone, A. tuberosa, in southern NM, has white to pinkish flowers and hairless, compound basal leaves.

NM COUNTIES: Northern and central NM mountains in dry to moist habitats: Colfax, Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Otero, Rio Arriba, Taos, Torrance, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Union.