Anemone grayi, Gray’s windflower
by Doreen Smith
Windflower, Anemone grayi, is the local native wood anemone that occurs in many Marin County sites in the coast redwood forest understory.
It has been cycled through several Latin names; here I’m using the one in the most recent Jepson Herbarium eFlora treatment from 2012, by Scott Simono. He separated three species, Anemone oregana var. oregana, A. grayi, and A. lyallii, which had all been lumped previously as A. oregana var. oregana. The three species can now be separated by details of their flower structure and by geographical location. If populations coincide, there may be hybrids. Anemone grayi is the near-coastal species that grows from Mendocino County to Monterey County. The usual color of the petal-like sepals is white or very pale blue. Many Herbarium sheets have not been corrected to the most modern name, so the distribution maps downloadable online may be inaccurate until revised.
Photo by Vernon Smith
