Saturday, April 26, 2008

Spring Beauties

Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica) are among the earliest spring bloomers. They look fragile but they are tough, surviving spring frosts and snow flurries. The plant's leaves look like grass; the white or pink petals are striped pink. Each flower, which closes at night and open in the morning light, is only about an inch in diameter.

Spring beauties grow from tubers, which some people call "fairy spuds" because they are edible. But I’d have to be very hungry to want to eat a tuber that produces such a lovely flower!

4 comments:

Ken said...

Aren't they pretty.

I must say we used to do a lot of running in the York forest our favourite was the Eldred King woodland on hwy 48.

Small City Scenes said...

Very sweet. I love the little early flowers and woodland plants. Yes, hey have to be tough. MB

Tom said...

These are very nice indeed... like you I would find it hard to eat any of the "fairy spuds"..
Tom

dot said...

Very pretty little flowers! Nice to know those spuds are edible but if they are as hard to pull up as the wild carrots I'd starve to death.

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East Gwillimbury is a rural town less than an hour north of Toronto, Canada's largest city. My family calls me CameraGirl because I take my camera with me wherever I go.