Anemone

The Anemone is a genus of about 120 species of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae from the north and south temperate zones. The meaning of the anemone flower is “forsaken” and also “a dying hope”. The anemone is called the wind flower because it was believed that wind is what caused it to bloom. In Ovid's narrative poem Metamorphoses, Venus transforms the blood of her dead lover, Adonis, into an Anemone. One implication is that the blood-red petals are symbolic of her lost love because, as the verses conclude, they cling too loosely to the stem and are easily lost in the wind. Photography by Peter Paterson.