Wood Anemone - Anemone quinquefolia

Anemone quinquefolia, also known as Wood Anemone or Nightcaps, is a perennial wildflower native to Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. It is a diminutive woodland flower, typically 5 inches tall, but ranging from 2 to 10 inches depending on conditions.
 
Perfect conditions are rich, moist mixed-hardwood forest floors, but this plant is tolerant of dry to swampy conditions and grows under conifers or on stream banks. It may take several years for it to flower, and it may die back in summer. However, we have seen this plant persist in the woods through the summer, so the references to Wood Anemone being an ephemeral may be from more southern sources. It likes full to partial shade, although it usually grows early before the canopy is fully developed. Even when not in flower the foliage makes an attractive groundcover.
 
Wood Anemone typically flowers in May with a single white bloom, unique in that it closes at night and during cloudy weather, where most white flowers seek to attract moths at night. It attracts small day-flying native bees and pollinating flies. The seeds of this plant are dispersed by ants.
 
Plants can display one leaf with five leaflets or three sets of leaves, each with three leaflets, or both, depending on whether they are flowering. Spreads by rhizome into colonies. Makes an excellent woodland groundcover. Pairs well with Solomon Seal, False Solomon Seal, Trout Lily, Canada Mayflower, Bluebead Lily, Rose Twisted Stalk, Sarsaparilla, Baneberries, Nodding Woodland Sedge, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and White Rattlesnake Root.