Spring Beauty Claytonia Blooming in Open Woodlands

Spring beauty, Claytonia virginica, is one of the first Spring Ephemeral flowers that I learned to recognize. It is a dainty little flower with five petals and stamens. The anthers at the tips of the stamens are pink, which seems to add to its delicate nature.

Loose clusters of Spring Beauty flowers.
Loose clusters of Spring Beauty flowers.

The loose clusters of spring beauty flowers may have one or more open blossoms and several other blossoms hanging down that are either spent or have yet to bloom.

Blooms of spring beauty. Note the pair of linear leaves on each plant.
Blooms of spring beauty. Note the pair of linear leaves on each plant.

Blossoms have five white rounded petals, many that have gray to pinkish lines, like the flowers in the image above. The whole flower may have a tinge of pink in addition to the pink anthers at the top of the five stamens.

Locally plentiful!

Colony of flowering spring beauty.
Colony of flowering spring beauty.

Spring beauty can be found blooming en masse from middle to late April in central Pennsylvania. The dandelion was included in the image above for scale.

Group of spring beauties blooming at the base of a big tree.
Group of spring beauties blooming at the base of a big tree.

(Click on any of the images to see a larger view.)

Spring beauty flowers opening up for the day.
Spring beauty flowers opening up for the day.

Spring beauty gets about as tall as the grass and its linear leaves help to hide it among the grass. The flowers in the image above seemed to be coming out of hiding as they started to bloom for the day. Their blossoms weren’t all the way open, yet. Note the pink anthers and lines on the petals in these loose clusters of spring beauties.

Photos of this common spring ephemeral flower above were taken 18Apr2010 at Little Buffalo State Park near the covered bridge.

Beautiful grouping of Spring Beauty blooming in the grass.
Beautiful grouping of Spring Beauty blooming in the grass.

I was a little surprised to see it still flowering a couple weeks later. The above photo was taken 30Apr2010 in the same area. That makes the little spring beauty one of the longest lasting spring ephemeral flowers that I’ve ever seen.

Claytonia, what a delight!

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