Spring Beauty

Claytonia virginica

Spring beauty is the native wildflower that defines early spring in eastern woodlands. The delicate five-petaled flowers -- white with fine pink veins that seem to glow from within -- carpet the forest floor in March and April before the trees leaf out. Each plant emerges from a small corm, blooms, and retreats underground by May, leaving no trace through summer. A true ephemeral. In a woodland garden, spring beauty naturalizes readily by seed and can form drifts over years that announce spring's arrival with a sweep of pink-veined white. It works beautifully under deciduous trees where the annual disappearance of the foliage is an asset rather than a problem. One of the earliest pollen sources for queen bumblebees emerging from winter hibernation.