Fun Facts About Spring Wildflowers Of The Southeast

There are many stories behind every plant.  Learn how they are pollinated, unbelievable life cycles, traditional medicinal uses, edibility, and much more.

NaturePod’s Spring Wildflower Field Guide takes you beyond simple identification.

Following are merely 3 species of the 92 species presented in the Spring Wildflowers of Southeastern US NaturePod. This gives you a small example of the vast amount of information awaiting you. A full list can be seen below.

White Baneberry, or Doll’s Eyes (Actaea pachypoda)

Identification

You’re more likely to notice white baneberry in the late summer and fall, when the white berries are conspicuous. Held above the foliage on red stems, the white berries are marked with a black dot in the center like the eyes of porcelain dolls. That’s where the common name Doll’s Eyes comes from.

White baneberry grows to about two feet tall. Look for the two or three large, compound leaves. Each leaf is divided into three leaflets, and the leaflets themselves are serrated.

The flowers are shaped like short, white bottlebrushes. Each flower in the bottlebrush has one pistil and lots of yellow-tipped stamens surrounded by tiny petals. White baneberry, like its close relatives red baneberry and mountain bugbane, is in the buttercup or Ranunculus family.

Look for it in rich woodland soil and deep shade.

Natural History

White baneberry is one of those plants best admired from afar – all parts of this plant should be considered poisonous. The berries, however, seem to pose the most threat and are said to contain toxins damaging to the heart.

The Cherokee, Blackfoot, Meskwaki, Iroquois, and Chippewa used minute amounts of root tea to cure various ailments from urinary tract infections to headaches caused by eye-strain. Modern medicine, however, councils us to stay well away from this woodland treasure.

Significance

If its poisonous nature isn’t enough to deter you from disturbing white baneberry, consider its dwindling population. White baneberry is endangered in Florida and considered exploitably vulnerable in New York.

Spring Beauty (Claytonia caroliniana)

Identification

A single pair of elongated oval leaves appears halfway up the short stem of spring beauty. White and pink flowers grow in terminal clusters – that’s botany lingo for a group of flowers that appear at the end of the stem. Each flower has six white petals streaked with pink veins. The very bottom of each petal is tinged with yellow so that it looks like there is a faint yellow circle in the middle of each flower.

There are two different spring beauties – Claytonia caroliniana and Claytonia virginiana. If the leaves are long and grass like and you are in the higher elevations, chances are you’re looking at Claytonia virginiana. Leaves of Claytonia caroliniana are broader and not as long, and that species is more common at lower elevations.

Natural History

If you want to see spring beauty in bloom, get to the woods before the trees leaf out. Spring beauty grows from a starchy rhizome, where it stores all the energy it made the previous season to fuel its early spring growth.

The pink veins and yellow circle on the flower petals act as nectar guides for pollinators. Because those pollinators are generally out and about when the sun is shining, spring beauty only opens on sunny days. Some old wives-tales used this behavior as a barometer to predict oncoming storms.

Wildlife also relish spring beauty. Deer and wild hogs dig the starchy tuber for lunch. Some people say that the raw root tastes like a radish, but when it’s baked it tastes like a cross between a baked potato and roasted chestnuts.

Significance

Claytonia viriginiana is of special interests to scientists because it has an unstable number of chromosomes. In almost every other species, the number of chromosomes is fixed – in humans that number is fixed at 46. In spring beauty, however, that number can vary from one individual plant to the next.

Spring beauty populations are large and frequent throughout their habitat. They also make a beautiful addition to a wildflower garden and many native plant enthusiasts are helping to preserve the gene pool of this delicate, spring ephemeral.

Sweet White Violet (Viola blanda)

Identification

Sweet white violet is one of the stemless violets –each of the leaves and flowers appear on a separate reddish stalk that rises from an underground stem. Like all violets, sweet white violet has five petals and heart shaped leaves.

In this particular species, the lower petal has purple veins and the upper two petals are twisted and bent backwards. Sweet white violet is similar to Canada violet and Northern white violet. Canada violet, however, has a yellow eye on the petals, and northern white violet has green stems rather than red and the upper petals are not bent back.

Sweet white violet has a delicate fragrance and grows in moist seepage slopes and stream banks.

Natural History

Back in the Victorian Era, – during the reign on Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901- the art of “floriography” or “language of flowers” was at its peak. Certain flowers were associated with certain emotions or messages.

We are familiar today that red roses represent romantic love, but different colored roses had variations of that meaning. Violets too, depending on the color, had various meanings. Blue violets represent faithfulness; sweet violets symbolize modesty; white violets mean, “Let’s take a chance on happiness”. So, in giving a bouquet of Sweet White Violets to someone you are saying you want to modestly take a chance on happiness with him or her.

The leaves and flowers of the northern white violet, like other violets, are edible and healthy, packing a good dose of Vitamins A and C. The flowers are so beautiful, they make wonderful candies and cake decorations. Many Native Americans and early settlers cooked violet leaves with a mixture of other greens and lard for an early spring vegetable.

Taking a peek behind the face of the flower, you will see that the lower petal is modified into a sac. This is where the cache of nectar is kept. Nectar is the reward flowers provide pollinators when they come to deliver another flower’s pollen. It is a high-energy sugary substance that bees, butterflies, wasps and many other insects relish. But some sneaky insects cheat! Some nectar robbers bite through the spur in the back without having to go through the “business end” of the flower face. To combat this, violets, like the sweet white violet use its sepals as extra protection back there. And perhaps this is why the top petals are reflexed as much as they are. The relationship between flowers and their pollinators is fascinating and intricate.

Significance

Sweet white violet has a large natural range, extending from Alabama and Georgia into Eastern and Central Canada. Although violets are seemingly common, not all species are abundant. Although sweet white violet is not listed as endangered or threatened, other closely related violets are.

Sweet white violet is used as a wetland indicator because it almost always grows in areas considered to be official wetlands, an important distinction for conservation purposes. Wetlands were once thought to be no more than breeding grounds for insect pests. Many of America’s wetlands were filled in or buried under pavement. We now know that wetlands provide many benefits. Besides the ecological importance, wetlands enhance flood control by absorbing storm waters and serve as filters for ground water recharging.

   

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