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Medieval herb garden blog 64: Pasque flower - Wakefield Museums and Castles
Pontefract Castle 
Medieval herb garden blog 64: Pasque flower
Tuesday, March 31, 2026Week 64 volunteer update
Today featured frequent showers and downpours! We still managed to top up the sales barrow. We added more rhubarb, lungwort (pulmonaria), cowslips and primroses. We also harvested some woad and hung it up to dry. It will be used later in a dyeing workshop.
We had a new volunteer today called Esther. Esther was introduced to the garden and then went on to the weed the rosemary wall.
Being Easter, we had a special visitor - Ilbert the Dragon! He popped in to meet the many visitors we had this morning. He also visited the Medieval Herb Garden.
Ilbert the Dragon with the Medieval Herb Garden
Plant of the week: Pasque flower (pulsatilla vulgaris)
'Pasque' is derived from the Hebrew word for Passover, 'pasakh'. The common name pasque flower refers to the Easter (Passover) flowering period.
The name 'pulsatilla' comes from the Latin 'pulse' ('I beat'). It refers to the plant's downy seeds being beaten by the wind.
Its other names are wind flower, meadow anemone, Easter flower, anemone of passiontide, and Danes’ blood.
Pasque flower is native to the UK and Europe. It is a toxic, clump-forming, decicuous, perennial, herbaceous plant.
Pasque flowers prefer to grow in full sun, in any soil type but clay. They can tolerate dry conditions.
The leaves are arranged in a rosette. They are long, soft, silver-grey, fern-like and hairy. The leaves are deeply three-parted or pinnately cleft to the base. Most of these leaves develop after the flowers open.
The plant flowers in March and April. The flowers are about 1.5 inches (4 cm) across. They grow individually on stalks 5 to 8 inches (12 to 20 cm) in height. These have a whorl of stalkless, deeply-cut leaflets or bracts. The flowers are bell-shaped, with deep purple sepals covered in long, silky hairs. They have a bright yellow stamen-filled centre.
Pasque flower has small seeds. Each seed has a long, feathery tail. They form a 'clock' head, similar to those of clematis.
Pasque flower in flower in the Medieval Herb Garden
Warning: toxic
Pasque flowers can be poisonous to humans and animals. They can trigger an allergic reaction when touched and blister the skin.
The fresh plant is extremely irritating to the skin, gastrointestinal tract and mucous membranes. It can lead to diarrhoea, vomiting, convulsions, hypotension and coma.
Culinary uses of pasque flower
Pasque flowers have no safe, typical, or direct culinary uses because they are toxic.
Use of pasque flowers as a dye plant
In Europe, pasque flowers are traditionally used to produce a non-permanent green dye from their purple sepals. This is used to colour Easter eggs.
Folklore and other facts about pasque flowers
As the plant typically flowers around Easter, it represents new life, resurrection and the triumph of spring. Christian tradition suggests the flowers sprang up in places where the blood of Jesus fell during the crucifixion.
A common legend is that pasque flowers only grow in places where the blood of Roman or Danish (Viking) soldiers was spilled in battle. The plant is referred to as "Dane’s Blood" in some areas.
The pasque flower was considered a protective herb in popular tradition. It was thought to protect against evil spirits and black magic. Walking around a pasque flower three times was supposed to remove any spell that has been cast on you.
Pulsatilla vulgaris is the county flower for both Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
The flower is considered a vulnerable-to-extinction species in some regions. In some areas it is found in only a few specifically protected chalk grasslands.
It is attractive to pollinators like honeybees, bumblebees, and solitary bees.
Medieval medicinal uses of pasque flowers*
Despite its toxicity, the leafy parts of the pasque flower have been used in traditional medicine. They have been used in sedatives and painkillers. They have also been used in remedies for eye conditions such as cataracts.
Pasque flower was used for the relief of headaches, nerve pain, 'nervous exhaustion' in women, measles, nettle rash, neuralgic toothache and earache, indigestion and attacks of bile.
However, John Gerard, in his 'Herbal' of 1597 said the plant, “doth extremely bite, and exulcerateth and eateth into the skin if it be stamped and applied to any part of the body”. So he didn't exactly recommend it.
*As always, this isn't to be considered medical advice today. Please don't use any plants mentioned in these blogs as medicine without advice from a doctor.
Medieval herb garden blogs
Browse all blogs by our dedicated team of volunteer gardeners at Pontefract Castle. Discover a different 'Plant of the Week'.