At least, that’s what old-timers believed, not only calling our early spring anemones “windflowers” but scientifically naming them after anemos, the Greek word for wind. In fact, in Greek mythology, Anemone was a breezy nymph who hung out with Zephyr, god of the west wind.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Y3zxNGZ5qrpugDSJpQNq9t8lbUNxix8XBcX2Om8Xueg9JQNSCgfXHmAlEd3FPEfsV_4ffioeURs6bKBx1dDvOGlXF8S5lEy5LCintsz-HsKVC_z0TyDQivslVvJB5_VueM6B3w/s200/Anemone_quinquefolia.jpg)
However, the naming gurus seem to have gone awry when labeling our common Rue-Anemone. The plant was long called Anemonella thalictroides, which literally means “a little anemone that looks like a thalictrum” – thalictrum being meadow rue, a summertime wildflower. But two decades ago, scientists reclassified the plant, deciding it really is a meadow rue and calling it Thalictrum thalictroides: “A meadow rue that looks like a meadow rue.”
Really!
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