georgiaberry.com

Spring Beauty: its mysteries revealed

naming a few tiny wildflowers

When given the choice of a wildflower to learn more about, Cecily chose the Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica).  It certainly is pervasive this time of year, with some lawns looking as if they are dusted with snow due to their coverage.

Our favorite wildflower book, Wildflowers of Arkansas by Carl Hunter, 1988,  places the Spring Beauty as part of the purslane family (Portulacaceae), and gives is this information:

Annual or perennial herbs, usually with fleshy leaves.   Flowers are bisexual, with radial symmetry, a calyx of 2 sepals, corolla  of 4-6 petals, and stamens of variable number.  The fruits have no subdivisions within and usually contain several seeds; the fruit often splits by means of a lid that breaks away from the top of the fruit. . . some members such as the commonly cultivated Moss Rose or Portulaca are ornamentals.

Well, alright, below is a very close up photo which illustrates the parts of the complete and bisexual flower of the Spring Beauty.

complete bisexual flower of the Spring Beauty

When I was peering at these flowers with a hand lens (here is the one I like, a loupe from the Private Eye) I saw a wonderfully clear illustration of the maturing flower and the changes it undergoes – a concept that is very clearly and beautifully discussed in the Handbook of Nature Study, see the nasturtium entry and I think also the delphinium entry.   On the left is a young flower, just exposing its fresh and pollen filled anthers (the male parts).   At the top right is a more mature flower, who has exhausted its pollen and allowed its anthers to bend back, exposing its pollen receiving stigma (the female parts).   In the lower right is a nice profile view of the stigma.  So in a vast lawn of Spring Beauty, flowers would be at all stages of development, both giving and receiving pollen.  And I’ll bet that if we were to find an illustration of the Spring Beauty photographed with a UV filter (you know, to see like insects do) it would show those pale pink veins and yellow spots as part of a distinct pattern.

bulb of the Spring Beauty

And finally, here is the hidden underside of the Spring Beauty.  We dug a clump, flipped it over on a metal screen, and gently rinsed it until the bulb was revealed.  This one is over an inch across – alot bigger than I thought it would be.

Do you want to join in the Wednesday Flower Study?  Go to the Handbook of Nature Study blog and read about it.