The beautiful blooms may be found in native prairies, along sandy country roads or tucked in crevices on the southern exposure of dry rocky bluffs. The flowers bloom before the leaves appear. When the blossoms fade, the deeply cut, lacy leaves expand and the flowering stalk elongates. Its sinewy remnants arch in the wind. The conspicuously plumes are now easy to spot, but you're at least a month too late to smell its blossoms.
Pasque flowers are perennials.
The flower rises from the caudex, the thickened base of a perennial plant. The five to seven pastel-colored petaloid sepals cover the flower parts. Pasque flowers lack true petals, as do all members of the anemone family including Canada anemone, wood anemone and thimbleweed. White silky hairs, each 2-3 mm long, densely cover all parts of pasque flowers giving the plant its fuzzy appearance. One wonders if such hairs protect this early-blooming plant from frosty spring nights.