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State Flowers

State Flower of South Dakota

Flower: Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla Hirsutissima)

Some South Dakotans thought the cactus flower should be the state flower. Residents of Rosebud County championed the wild rose. Today, wild roses represent two of South Dakota’s neighbors, North Dakota and Iowa.

But South Dakota chose a member of the buttercup family. It has numerous names, including wild crocus, Easter flower, May Day flower, and prairiesmoke. South Dakota’s original state flower bill described it as the pasque or wind flower. It was changed to pasque flower, with the scientific name Anemone patens. It was then adopted as South Dakota’s state flower on March 5, 1903. In 1919, South Dakota’s state flower law was revised, changing the scientific name to Pulsatilla hirsutissima.