Guest Blog by Rachel Shaw
This past weekend I was searching hard for signs of spring
in my yard. My crocuses had been in their glory until they got chomped by
something. Boo. Daffodils, of course; nothing is more cheering than their
bright faces at the end of winter.
What about natives? I was happy to see one already in bloom:
the aptly named Spring Beauty (Claytonia
virginica) pictured here.
These delicate little plants are only a few inches tall,
with leaves like slender blades of grass, and pretty-in-pink petals (actually
white or light pink striped with darker pink.)
I had almost forgotten about them; they are among the more ephemeral of
spring ephemerals. Once the flower is gone the grass-like leaves are not very
noticeable, and these also soon disappear for the rest of the season.
Spring Beauty prefers moist soil and sun to part-shade, but
based on its wide distribution – Eastern U.S. and Canada to Texas – it is not
terribly fussy. The little clump I found blooming was nestled against the step
up to our patio, probably giving it a little more warmth and sunlight than the
original patch, a few feet away. (This is one plant I would be glad to have
spread a little more as it is so unproblematic, unlike some of my well-loved
but more rambunctious natives.)
A relative, Claytonia
caroliniana, or Carolina Spring Beauty, is somewhat less widely distributed
and can be identified by its ovoid leaf. Corms of the Claytonia species were a food source for Native Americans; they are
said to be both nutritious and tasty when cooked, but I have no intention of
digging up these sweet little plants to find out!
Once I started searching, I saw shoots of other
natives that must have been emerging even as the last late snow was melting. A
couple, like Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
and Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla), have flower buds and will be blooming soon. (The
Twinleaf will come and go in the blink of an eye, going almost immediately from
flower to exploded seed capsule, leaving behind the beautiful divided leaf into
early summer.) Others, like Columbine, (Aquilegia canadensis), won’t
bloom for a few more weeks; the Scarlett Beebalm, (Monarda didyma)
won’t flower until early summer.
What native plants are getting a
spring start in your yard, nearby park, or wooded area?
About the Author
Rachel Shaw focuses on vegetable gardening and growing
native plants in her small yard in Rockville, MD. She blogs at http://hummingbirdway.blogspot.com/. This guest blog post is part of a monthly Native Plants series that Rachel will be posting here on the 10th of each month.
The earliest wildflower I see in my yard is the lovely wild blue violet. Many curse this as a weed but I welcome both the groundcover and the burst of color in early spring.
ReplyDeleteMarney
Virginia Bluebells - Mertensia virginica! Trillium almost blooming. Several relatives of the bleeding heart - Dicentra eximia, cucularia and canadensis are up in bud. Wild Ginger up and in its fuzziest best.
ReplyDeleteMarney - are the violets that typically show up in our yards native? I know there are lots of different violet species but I don't know anything about identifying them.
ReplyDeleteKit - great that you have Bluebells blooming and the Trillium are almost there. It sounds like your yard is quite a bit further along than mine. But my Bloodroot and Twinleaf did bloom today!