The Wild Galilean Anemone blooms between the Jewish feasts of Purim and Passover (roughly late February). The flower resembles a poppy, but it is not. The folks who have made botanical studies of the Holy Land suggest that this is the flower Jesus was referring to in Matthew 6:28-30.
"And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the wild flowers grow. They neither work nor weave, but I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these? Now if God so clothes the flowers of the field which are alive today and burnt in the stove tomorrow is he not much more likely to clothe you, you of little faith?"
The Galilean Anemone grows in wild fields in Palestine. Jesus surely would have known them as they bloom near the Sea of Galilee. Bright red, you can't miss them. But they are also short-lived and hence are often a symbol of the transience of beauty. The ancient Roman author, Pliny (79 AD) said of the Anemone, "They only open in the wind." Their blooming seems orchestrated and extra-sensoried for maximum effect.
Anyway, Vasily Polenov has certainly seen and valued their presence, as well as the lichen-covered volcanic rock of the area and the abundant variety of the spring green. The small, white, snowdrop-like cluster of flowers to the left of the Anemone attests that they often bloom in fields containing other kinds of wild flowers.
The photo below was taken in a field near Jerusalem. Who knows, maybe this is where Vasily Polenov set up his easel. Blessed flower — in its humility, referenced by Jesus and captured (with its shadow, rock and flower companions) by this soulful young artist who found it all to be irresistibly good, as God muses at the end of creation's third day.
