WildeHerb is a collection of wild herb and wildflower sightings.
Every Spring I venture into the woods looking for one of my favorite flowers, Hepatica. You have to be a good flower hunter to find it. It’s a small plant so you need to be fairly close to it to see one. The leaves that have overwintered are typically hidden, at least in part, by … Read more
Hepatica waits for the first few days with sun and warmth in early Spring to show its pretty blossoms. At a time when practically nothing else is happening in the woodlands, it’s so rewarding, and a little surprising, to see such a delicate flower among the leaf litter. Over the last week we’ve seen hepatica … Read more
If you’ve been to this blog in the springtime before, you probably know that Hepatica is one of my favorite woodland flowers. Being a Spring Ephemeral its delicate blossoms range from white to light blue, lavender or even cobalt blue. Photos taken 21 April 2011. (Click on photos to see a larger image.) Pardon my … Read more
One of my favorite spring ephemeral flowers makes an appearance in woodlands of the Eastern United States during April. Hepatica americana, or just hepatica, is a perennial spring-flowering plant. Hepatica is a Spring Ephemeral because the plant grows, flowers and completes its life-cycle before the tree canopy is filled in with leaves. Once that happens … Read more
April weather can be very exciting. On the first of April it snowed on our mountain ridge, to be followed in two weeks time by record high temperatures! Sometimes the plants don’t know what to do and put off growing or blooming until the conditions are better. My photos from last Spring show that we’re … Read more
We all know a cardinal when we see one, so we can recognize the species and tell it apart from robins and redstarts. But can any of us profess to know individual birds? I would argue no – not without also observing behavioral differences or actions unique to the individual. Well, if we think about … Read more
In reviewing the many pictures I’ve taken of hepatica in the woodlands I found a couple instances where the leaves were four-lobed instead of three-lobed. Some leaves will have four rounded lobes instead of the typical three rounded lobes, although the fourth lobe seems like an afterthought. Chalk it up to individual variation. If you … Read more
Round-lobed hepatica appears to bloom over a couple weeks time, with flowers coming and going according to the weather. Rainy, overcast and cooler weather hold back their blossoming. Like a lot of flowers hepatica blossoms close up at night, too. This daily opening and closing of blooms is probably related to changes in temperature. Springtime … Read more