Category Archives: Virginia Springbeauty

Western Springbeauty

A couple months ago (April 12, 2021) I wrote a blog post on Virginia Springbeauty. Sometimes there is a plant or a bird that has an almost twin on the other side of the continent. That’s the case here. Virginia Springbeauty (Clintonia virginica) is native to eastern North America, and it has an almost twin, Western Springbeauty (Claytonia lanceolata), native to western North America. That’s it in the photo above. I took this photo while enjoying the wonderful Southwest, and Zion National Park.

This image, above is Virginia Springbeauty, native to eastern North America. The leaves of Western Springbeauty are wider and store moisture. The leaves of Virginia Springbeauty are more grass-like. I LOVE visiting the Southwest and to find things that remind me of home makes it extra special.

Virginia Springbeauty

I’ve got itty-bitty buds on my Virginia Springbeauty (Claytonia virginica). Buds that look very much like really teeny tiny jalapeño peppers. What looks to me like those jalapeño peppers are sepals. Sepals are leaf-like structures surrounding and protecting the maturing bud. The number of sepals varies in difference species of flower. In Virginia Springbeauty there are two sepals for each flower. Look at the bud that has just opened in the lower left corner of the above image. The bud looks as though it is coming out of the mouth of (hmmm what? maybe . . . ) a crocodile. That “crocodile” is the two sepals that are opening for the bud/flower to come out.

Virginia Springbeauty is found in and is native to eastern North America.

The plant emerges from a tuber (also called a corm) as a stem with leaves at ground level. Halfway up the stem there are two blade-like leaves and further up the stem are the flowers. The flowers of Virginia Springbeauty are about one half inch across.

The flowers are pollinated by bees, flies and sometimes butterflies and skippers. The resulting fertilized flower will produce a capsule that contains seeds with appendages called elaiosomes which ants like to feed to their larvae in their underground nests, producing the perfect “ant farmer” situation.

I think it’ll be perhaps a week until my flowers open. Open during the day, closed at night or during cloudy days. I’m looking forward to finding them open, looking like peppermint candy.