Wood anemone a one of our spring woodland flowers. These little plants, with flowers about 2/3 inch across, appear before the trees leaf, and die back by mid summer. Otherwise, they're not very well organized. They mostly have five petals, with a whole mess of little bits in the middle. Oops, wait, they don't have petals. Their petals and sepals are undifferentiated, so they have tepals, and there can be four to nine of them. As plants evolved, they generally became more organized, with specific numbers and shapes for the flower parts (think Trilliums). This family arrived relatively early in that process. Wood anemones, sometimes found in large patches, grow in AL, AR, CT, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, MA, ND, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV, AB, MB, NB, NS, ON, QC, and SK(T). Ives Fen Preserve, Lenawee Co MI, 5/7/11.