Northland Nature: Hepaticas bloom first on forest floor
Apr. 19—Once we get past the middle of April, we have nearly 14 hours of daylight and warming temperatures. These vernal conditions, along with some moisture, set the tone for the annual growth of spring wildflowers.
These plants live in a space that is limited both in area and time. They need to rise above the ground and open leaves quickly to get the needed sunlight to help produce their floral components.
All this must be done in the short period after the snow leaves, the ground thaws and before the leafing canopy overhead in the trees shades their entire growing location. Limited to the space below the trees and the proper weather causes the early spring flora to grow and flower in a hurry.
Like many, I have been anticipating this show of the spring forest floor flora. The couple of weeks of this blooming scene is well worth waiting for and we are not disappointed when it arrives. But this timing is crucial. If spring is late, this growth would get off to a late start and not last long. If spring is early and the leaves of trees develop a couple weeks before expected, the flora of the forest floor will be shaded longer than usual.
Like many flowers that hold petals, they attract the attention of insects that are active this time for pollination and help form seeds. Typically, this growing and blooming time is from about mid-April to mid-May. (But, of course, spring is often not "typical.")
If all proceeds well, a walk in the deciduous woods of the Northland can garner about a dozen kinds of wildflowers in bloom, changing every day. As the season progresses, I expect to see spring beauties (two species); bloodroots; wood anemones; bellworts (two species); and violets of several kinds and colors, from white to yellow to blue to purple.
Also seen are the strange-looking Dutchmans breeches; buttercups; trout-lilies (white and yellow); two kinds of trilliums (large-flower and nodding); wild ginger with its flower near the ground; jack-in-the-pulpits with their bent flowers; and nearby in the wetlands, carpets of marsh marigolds glow with yellow and gold.
Once this show begins, it is worth seeing often. Their lives are short — why they are frequently called ephemerals — and new ones bloom each day. It all begins with the flowering hepaticas in April.
This long list of spring wildflowers, which continues into the shady times of late May, starts with a low-growing plant called hepaticas. With usually six petals that range from nearly white to deep purple, the buds are quick to open. I have never seen the progression of these various spring wildflowers that do not begin with hepaticas.
It seems as though hepaticas are prepared to grow early in the season. Unlike others that must grow the new leaves in the early spring sunlight, hepaticas keeps their three-lobed leaves from last year. They are green throughout the winter weather.
When spring temperatures and long daylight happen, it is ready. I often have seen these green leaves while taking winter walks. (The three-lobed leaves give the plant its name, hepatica, referring to the lobes of the liver.)
In some very early springs in sunlit sites, the earliest ones may open in late March. But April is the month for hepaticas to bloom, lasting into May. And now, they prepare us to see the bouquet that will soon carpet the spring forest floor.
