Pasqueflower
Pasqueflower, an early-blooming plant that is native to the northern temperate and mountainous regions of North America and Europe. The purple or pale blue flowers appear about Eastertime. (Pasque is Old French for “Easter.”) The flowers, about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) across, are downy and bell-shaped. They are borne on short, woolly stems above a nestlike clump of narrow-lobed leaves. The seeds have long, feathery tails. The pasqueflower is the state flower of South Dakota.
The American pasqueflower is Anemone patens; European, A. pulsatilla. Both belong to the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae.