“April, the angel of the months, the young love of the year.”—Vita Sackville-West
The vernal equinox occurs in March, but April feels to be the essence of spring. With the warmth of stronger sunlight, life returns to our gardens and to the wildness around us. While we are busy cleaning up and planting in our cultivated worlds, wild plants are sprouting and many flower early. Some of our most endearing wildflowers are spring bloomers.
The purple violet, Viola sororia, is the most common of our native violas. It will often appear in lawns and garden beds and though it is quite charming blooming in lawns, beware of it in garden beds. It is not a shrinking violet as it has an aggressive colonizing habit and can insinuate itself among other plants. There are many naturally occurring hybrids of the purple violet with white or even freckled blooms. Violet leaves and flowers are edible and rich in vitamins A and C. The flowers can also be candied by dipping in beaten egg whites and coated with fine sugar and dried.
Viola rotundifolia, the round-leaved yellow violet is an early bloomer in woodlands before the trees have leafed out. Smaller than the purple violet, these flowers of a soft yellow are a welcome sight in early spring.
Viola blanda, the sweet white violet, is another woodland denizen that colonizes by stolons or long underground roots. The ‘sweet’ of its name must refer to its charm as it has no scent.
Along wooded hillsides the leaves of bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis, emerge from the ground wrapped around the single flower stem. As the handsome leaf unfolds, it reveals a flower composed of eight white petals surrounding a golden boss. The exquisite blooms only open on sunny days and last but a week, when the petals fall.
“A certain sorrowful charm is evoked when one comes across the remaining shards of shattered flowers, with petals in ethereal white scattered across the forest floor.”—Dan Hinkley
The name, Sanguinaria (blood-like), comes from the red sap of the underground rhizome which was used by Native Americans as a dye for body paint and coloring fibers as well as a medicine for respiratory ills. Bloodroot is a member of the poppy family and another nickname, Sweet Slumber, refers to the effect similar to that of the opium poppy.
The most common trillium in our area is Trillium erectum, the handsome wine colored variety with a distinct unpleasant odor that lends it some of its common names, such as Stinking Benjamin, or, my favorite, the Wet Dog Trillium. Wakerobin, Trinity Flower, and Birthroot (used by Native Americans during childbirth) also refer to trilliums.
The other less common trilliums are the painted trillium, T. undulatum, which has white flowers with a blotch of maroon in the center that streaks through the white, and the large-flowered trillium, T. grandiflorum, with snowy white blooms. The trillium plant is composed of three leaves, three sepals, three petals, six stamens, and three stigmas.
Trilliums are members of the lily family. A more discrete cousin is Uvularia sessilfolia, also known as Sessile Bellwort or Wild Oats. The Latin name is derived from the uvula shape of the leaves. Small pendulous creamy yellow flowers on foot-high plants inhabit our woodlands. I am lucky to have a hillside populated by these delicate beauties.
Erythronium americanum is another lily cousin. Common names include Trout Lily from the mottled leaves similar to trout skin, and Dog Tooth Violet referring to the fang-shaped root. The distinctive foliage and large colonies in moist woodlands make erythroniums easy to spot. The yellow flowers are lily shaped with petals and sepals curved back. The Trout Lily is a true spring ephemeral, a term applied to plants that emerge, flower, and fade away in a short span of time.
An early bloomer with evergreen foliage is Hepatica americana or Anemone americana. There seems to be some disagreement in the taxonomy world over the name of this plant. I have always known it as hepatica and will hold onto that name. The naturalist, John Burroughs, claims “it is certainly the gem of the woods.” The three-lobed leaves form a base for the simple blooms of six rounded petals. Color variation ranges from white through pink to blue and purple.
“Blue as the heaven it gazes at, startling the loiterer in the naked groves with unexpected beauty.”—William Cullen Bryant
Jack-in-the-pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum, is easily recognizable. The flower is composed of a curved hood of green and white stripes and an inner purplish brown called the spathe (pulpit) and an erect brown club inside called the spadix (jack) which bears tiny separate male and female flowers at the base. Jack-in-the-pulpit is genetically bisexual, but in nature usually appears as either male or female and can change sex according to circumstances. It is quite a versatile and complicated plant.
Bluets, Quaker Ladies, and Angel Eyes are all names for Houstonia caerulean, those small flowers that grow in masses on acid soil. Low plants with delicate white or lavender flowers can appear to be patches of snow in early spring when you are ready for the snow to be gone.
After an April shower you may feel like Cyrano de Bergerac who exclaimed, “walking in the garden after the benediction of rain, my poor, big devil of a nose inhales April.”
April 2018
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