Spring Ephemerals

Every spring a wonderland of tiny woodland flowers emerge before the trees leaf out, to take advantage of the sunlight. In a couple of weeks the flowers will be gone. By summer most of the foliage will die back to the ground, having stored up enough energy in this little window to hunker down and wait for next year. It is a delight to see them every year -- and their names are delightful too.

Twinleaf - Jeffersonia diphylla

Trout lily - Erythronium americanum

Squirrel corn - Dicentra canadensis

Early saxifrage - Saxifraga virginiensis

Hepatica - Hepatica nobilis

Bloodroot - Sanguinaria canadensis