View from the hollow: Wildflowers race for the sun

I was able to check on the wildflowers today. Our weather has remained cool, with temperatures down below freezing every night this week. But the early spring wildflowers are persistent.

I dare say that most people would still think the forest bare. One must look closely to see these tiny and scattered wildflowers. Once you see them, you begin to realize that early wildflowers are blooming all around, whether we're watching or not. Soon the forest floor will be carpeted green as the spring ephemerals race to bloom and set seed before the canopy above leafs out and plunges the forest floor into perpetual twilight.

Thanks to an enthusiastic friend, I am paying more attention to Hepatica this year. I think I noticed the purple leaves, but I don't think I even noticed them blooming last year (though I'm sure they did). This year I am watching the Hepatica as closely as I can, even to the individual plant.

So far as I know, there is only one small population of Hepatica in our woods. This plant doesn't normally grow in the Nashville area, seeming to prefer areas like the mountains of east Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau. This population of Hepatica seems to be thin and scattered, a plant here, another there. I think these Hepaticas must be on the frontiers of their home country, outliers, if you will.

Most spring ephemerals are perennials that send up leaves and flowers quickly as the earth warms and sunlight is still available before the forest canopy closes. Once the trees overhead leaf out, the ephemerals turn yellow and fade away, retreating to their root-stock underground until next spring. The spring wildflowers are done and gone almost as quickly as they arrived.

Hepatica nobilis

From my reading I find that Hepatica has developed a unique strategy to get an early start. Rather than make its new leaves first, Hepatica has leaves from last year that overwinter in the leaf litter. Though worn and tattered, the leaf takes in the earliest rays of spring and helps the plant send up flowers as early as possible. It is only after the plant has flowered and gone to seed that Hepatica then spends the additional energy to make new leaves and go into the full-time business of photosynthesis. These leaves are adapted to the dim summer forest floor, and they persist through the summer, fall, and winter, until next spring. Nature reminds us that there is usually more than one way to solve a problem, and sometimes being an oddball has its advantages.

Hepatica

Below are a few more photographs that I snapped today. The Birdseye Speedwell and Purple Dead Nettle were in the front yard, and the Toothwort and Corydalis were in the woods. The bottom photo is just what I thought an interesting view of the forest. It also shows how the forest floor still appears to be mostly covered with last year's autumn leaves.