Peacock anemone

A very beautiful and very common Greek wildflower, Anemone pavonina, spotted in MIlies village, Pelion mountain, Greece. Basal leaves long-stalked, biternate, with shallowly lobed segments, generally rather glaucous; stem leaves in a singly whorl, linear to lanceolate, usually undivided. Flowers solitary, 3-6cm across, scarlet, pink, bluish or purple, often with a pale, yellowish or whitish zone towards the centre; the petals eight to twelve, elliptic, spreading widely apart. Achenes densely woolly. Sometimes the flower stem is up to 50cm tall, though often less, depending the environment and the surrounding plants. Rocky and grassy habitats, olive groves, vineyards. Central and eastern Mediterranean from southwestern France eastwards. Often confused with A. coronaria, but readily distinguished by its undivided stem leaves and the narrower and generally more numerous petals. The two species can often grow together in the wild, but intermediates do not appear to occur.