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Ephermera, from the Greek for “things lasting only a day” as in the May Fly of the order Ephemeroptera. In the plant kingdom, ephemerals are a bit longer lived, but once their flowers have set seed, they too may disappear in a day. The fleeting days of late April and May bring them forth on the hills and in the wooded valleys, but seek them early, for when June warms up to summer, all trace will be but a memory
Years ago, when our daughters were little, we helped friends with maple sugaring. It began in February, usually in a cold slushy downpour, and often ended in early April on a warm, sunny day full of newly awakened bugs. The couple we worked for are honest, straight forward folks, not those you would think of as terribly romantic. But every spring, as the weather warmed and the sugaring season wore down, the boss would bring his wife the first spring beauties.
Early this April, back in our woods, there were still patches of snow and the bare ground was an almost solid carpet of last year’s old leaves, now in shades of tan and grey and a dark russet. The spring pools were full of melt water and April rain. The only greens were last year’s fern fronds and the partidge berry vines. But if you tread carefully and looked closely you’d find the tiny leaves and buds of
spring beauties pushing through the ash leaves.
Spring ephemerals, those sweet blooms that pop up overnight when the weather warms a bit and seemingly disappear as quickly, are one of the joys of spring in my woods.
The spring beauties
and hepaticas come first,
followed closely by trilliums
and blue cohosh,
Indian cucumber root,
jack-in-pulpits
and yellow mandarin ,
trout lilies,
bloodroot
and cowslips .
If I begin in mid April and walk back once or twice a week through May, I will see all of these come and go as quickly as an April shower, as lovely as a day in May.
The first year that I walked out every day between snow melt and late May was the year my youngest daughter went to school. I had mornings to myself, after chores, and took my camera, a notebook and a pencil and a copy of the Audobon Society's Field Guide to North American Wildflowers Eastern. Mitzi, our Border Collie cross, would walk back with me on school days, and the girls would often tag along on Saturdays. We'd go rain or shine, but if it thundered, Mitzi would turn me toward the house, she had a great fear of thunder storms.
The first flowers that I identified were the hepaticas, some that were periwinkle blue and some pink. Then there were the trilliums and the big violets, both the downy yellow violets and Canada violets, the tiny sweet white violets and the round leaved yellows. There were Dutchman's britches circling old rotted stumps and Canada mayflowers and miniature ginseng on the dryer western side of the woods where the Indian cucumber root grew.
It has been several years since I've had time to spend an entire spring watching them come and go, but this year, I have a bit more time, and there will be more walks in the woods and some new photographs to go with those from the past.
The botanical names of the flowers shown in photographs are as follows:
Claytonia virginica Spring Beauties
Hepatica Hepatica
Trillium erectum Trillium
Caulophyllum thalictroides Blue Cohosh
Medeola virginiana Indian Cucumber Root
Arisaema triphyllum Jack-In-Pulpit
Disporum lanuginosum Yellow Mandarin
Erythronium americanum Trout Lilies
Sanguinaria canadensis Bloodroot
Caltha palustris Cowslip
All photos are the property of the author.
These two threads in the Native Plants and Wild Plants forum have additional pictures of many more early spring flowers:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/832923/
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/716271/
About Kathleen M. Tenpas
We have a grazing dairy of 55 cows in the rolling hills of western New York State where we raised two daughters who have now blessed us with four grandchildren. I have messy, jungly beds of old roses, (some real antiques left by former owners), perennials, wildflowers and lots and lots of not so ornamental grasses! I have a Masters degree in Creative Writing: Poetry from Antioch University. I am a photographer and fabric artist and I bake a mean loaf of bread.
Posted by KathyJo (from Fayette, MO) on May 5, 2008 at 9:09 AM:
I hope to be able to spend more time in the woods someday! I notice your trilliums are a little bit different than the ones that grow here! How absolutely lovely!
...
Posted by Kathleen (from Panama, NY) on May 5, 2008 at 9:49 AM:
HI, KJo! We have three different kinds of trilliums, the large white, the wake robin and a green one that I haven't been able to find any info on. My grandfather used to call the red stinking Benjamins. I have no idea who Benjamin was, but they do have a less than pleasant oder.
...
Posted by KathyJo (from Fayette, MO) on May 5, 2008 at 4:18 PM:
I had heard that the ones here called wake robins.. I have a picture but don't see how to attach it to this thread.. The leaves of the ones I have in the woods are "mottled" The flower is burgundy...
...
Posted by Kathleen (from Panama, NY) on May 5, 2008 at 5:20 PM:
I've seen them around here as well, but not in my woods. I love the leaves.
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Posted by KathyJo (from Fayette, MO) on May 6, 2008 at 10:18 PM:
Yes, It's look almost exactly like that.. The picture of yours has a little fatter leaf than mine.
I have been to a tree graftng school today.. That was interesting..
...
Subject: Very timely!
Posted by CMoxon (from Urbandale, IA) on May 4, 2008 at 9:27 AM:
Great article - thanks for writing it! I recently moved to a property with some timber on it and went for a walk yesterday and saw (and photographed) some wildflowers. I had no idea what they were and posted them on the Plant ID forum. One of them was a trout lily! Guess I just needed to wait a day! This will help me as the season goes on to identify others that I see. I also saw woodland phlox yesterday - pale purple. Very pretty flowers. All of these things are new to me!
Claire
...
Posted by melody (from Benton, KY) on May 4, 2008 at 11:07 AM:
Love those Spring Beauties! Of course, they are all gone by now here in KY, but they are sure a welcome sign that winter is over!
...
Posted by roybird (from Santa Fe, NM) on May 4, 2008 at 5:53 PM:
Hi, Kathleen. Nice article. I am starting to think the spring ephemerals might be my favorites. We appreciate them so after a long winter!
...
Posted by Kathleen (from Panama, NY) on May 4, 2008 at 6:58 PM:
I'm glad you all liked the article. I remember the first spring that I really got to go through the woods over the month of May. I was astonished at what I found. It was the spur to my love affair with native and wild flowers. And while logging and gas well drilling have taken a toll on our woods (not of our making), the flowers, having had several years to recuperate, are coming back quite nicely.
...
Posted by darius (from Marion, VA) on May 4, 2008 at 8:24 PM:
Ohhh, Kathleen, what a wonderful 'walk' in the woods. Thanks for the smiles it brought!
spring beauties pushing through the ash leaves.
come first, 
, 
.
