Spring Ephemerals

The earliest spring blooms are collectively called "spring ephemerals". Locally, the flowers hit their peak in April.

With COVID-19 keeping everyone at home, we've had more opportunity to walk the woods this year than we have in several years, and consequently, we've noticed more flowers this year.

Trout lily (Erythronium americanum) is the earliest bloom. It blooms in early March and the flowers are gone before anything else appears.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) usually comes next. The flowers are gone by mid-April, but the leaves continue to grow through the summer and can become very large.

Hepatica is another early flower. This is most likely sharp-lobed hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba) - while I didn't see any leaves associated with this flower, all the leaves I did see in the area were sharp-lobed.

Spring beauty (Claytonia virginica)

Rue-anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides)

Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica)

Vernal Iris (Iris vernal, also called Dwarf Iris) likes poor, acidic soils, so it grows well on our shale hillsides.

Large-flowered trillium (Trillium grandiflorum, also called White Trillium) marks the end of the spring ephemerals, blooming in April and very early May.

T. grandiflorum starts out white, but as it ages, the flower turns pink.