03.22.20 Spring Beauties!

Definitely a big favorite around here. Spring Beauties, Claytonia virginica, are one of the very earliest flowers to bloom on our mountainsides. I have seen it blooming in sunny spots in February. A tiny, fairy-like flower held aloft on a fragile stem which belies picking. It is a true spring ephemeral, the plant dies back as sunlight disappears behind the thick overstory of tree leaves. It survives throughout the year in a small nut-sized corm, replenished with energy by the photosynthesis available during those few brief weeks when the plant has sprouted above ground. It is named for Virginian, John Clayton, a colonial botanist who lived until 1773. Carl Linnaeus bestowed the honor of the name on Clayton when he received news of the plant from other European botanists. Sources on the web claim that John Clayton’s herbarium of collected plants still resides in the London Natural History Museum!

Illustration of the grass-like Claytonia virginica from Meehan’s The native flowers and ferns of the United States in their botanical, horticultural, and popular aspects, 1878.