Thimbleweed

Anemone virginiana

We usually think of anemones as spring wildflowers, the most famous, perhaps being pasqueflower (Anemone patens) of the Great Plains which gets its name from its habit of blooming around Easter time.  Many anemones, however, including thimbleweed are summer bloomers.  Thimbleweed can be recognized by its long flowerstalks topped with single white or greenish-white flower.  Lower down you will find leaves that are divided into three segments that are are partially divided again into threes.  The leaves usually occur in whorls of three.  The flowers are unusual in that they technically have no petals; the sepals, which are green in most flowers, are showy and petal-like in the anemones.  Topping the showy sepals is a button made up of many female parts surrounded by many male parts, anthers bearing pollen.  The female cluster will enlarge and elongate to form a fruit the size and shape of a small thimble, as seen on the left in the picture.  This fruit gives the plant its common name.

Thimbleweed is found from eastern Quebec west to North Dakota and south to Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas.  There are two variants of the flower, both of which are said to occur throughout the plant's range.  In one, as seen on the right, the sepals are relatively small and greenish white.  In the other, as seen below, the sepals are much larger and pure white.  It is said that the white form is more common in the mountains south of Pennsylvania, and it is certainly the most common form in Wildwood Park.