spring... arrives! ... first bloom, after a winter of heavy snowfalls. april 22-24, 2011 (Ēostre weekend). prairie crocus, new furry fuzzy nubs.   COMMON NAMES: windflower, prairie smoke, prairie anemone, easter flower, pasque flower, kippiaapi, meadow anemone, cutleaf anemone, wild crocus, prairie crocus, winter crocus, meadow crocus, mountain crocus, and ... IT'S NOT A CROCUS AT ALL.
later, in early may. they are everywhere!  formerly Anemone patens, now Pulsatilla patens or P. ludoviciana.  buttercup family: ranunculaceae. --> seeding kippiaapi {with buffalo beans}, later plant cycle

NOTE: Ranunculus, Latin for "a little frog", rana "frog", by Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD). Ranunculaceae, a group of plants in the buttercup or crowfoot family "that grows where frogs abound." {Unlike the little garden crocus bulbs, corm, bulbo-tuber crocus (wiki: related to Hebrew כרכום karkōm, Aramaic ܟܟܘܪܟܟܡܡܐ kurkama, Persian and Arabic كركم kurkum, which mean saffron or saffron yellow) in the lily family, liliaceae.}