Anemone ×hybrida Paxton
Japanese anemone
Perennial herb 50-150 cm tall, with creeping rhizomes. Basal lvs few, 3-foliolate; petioles sparsely appressed-tomentose, sulcate, (10)-15-40 cm long; leaflets 3-5-lobed up to 1/2 way, petiolulate, 2-serrate, bristly or sparsely hispid, green above, pale beneath, cordate at base, unevenly so on lateral leaflets, acute at apex, 5-12-(20) × 3-9-(15) cm. Subfloral lvs similar, smaller, becoming simple, 3-lobed, cuneate at base. Fls erect, 4-8 cm diam., (1)-3-8 in umbels; pedicels tomentose, 5-25 cm long. Perianth segments 7-14-(20), pink or rarely white, tomentose beneath, usually glabrous above. Achenes not maturing.
N.: Auckland (Waitakere Range and Auckland City), Bay of Plenty (Tauranga), Wellington (Upper Hutt and Wellington City); S.: Marlborough (Mangamaunu), Nelson, Christchurch, Otago (Taieri).
Cultivated hybrid 1940
Forest remnants, waste land, abandoned gardens, local.
FL Feb-Apr.
A. × hybrida has been known in N.Z. as A. japonica. It is a hybrid between A. hupehensis var. japonica of China and A. vitifolia of N. India. The history of this hybrid group is discussed by Bowles, E. A. and Stearn, W. T., Jour. Roy. Hort. Soc. 72: 261-268, 297-308 (1947). The white-flowered form is known in cultivation as `Honorine Jobert'.
