March ~ May at Cylburn

Over the years, Cylburn Arboretum has produced many different guides to help visitors enjoy the delightful spring ephemerals that fill our woods. “Spring ephemerals” are woodland plants that leaf out and bloom early in the spring before the trees develop their leaves. After the trees leaf out, the ephemeral flowers are deprived of light and gradually disappear. But they do not die. The energy that they gathered during their brief appearance is stored underground until the following spring.

As you prepare for spring, these are just a few of the blooms that you might find in the months of March – May at Cylburn (we wish that we could fit them all!). All of the ephemerals deliberately planted along Cylburn’s trails are native to the eastern half of North America. Please be sure to leave what you see for others to enjoy.

1 Virginia Bluebells

(Mertensia virginica) have large, showy clusters of flowers that are blue when fully open but pink in bud. They particularly like moist, rich woods and river floodplains. Bumblebees are the main pollinators of these and many other early spring wildflowers. Bumblebees are our only native social bee. Virginia Bluebells are sold in garden centers and will thrive in moist soil in shade to light sun.

2 Dutchman’s Breeches

(Dicentra cucullaria) is a delicate feathery plant. The white flowers, shaped like a little pair of

'upside-down' breeches, have a yellow lip. The nectar is in the upper tip of the flower, exactly 8 mm from the opening at the bottom. This is the length of a bumblebee’s tongue, the primary pollinator.

3 Look closely at the flower of Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) and notice the thin pink stripes on the petals. These stripes are like “landing strips,” guiding insects to the center where the pollen is. This is probably the most common spring wildflower in the northeast. It reproduces vegetatively, creating large colonies that blanket the forest floor. You can see Spring Beauty in bloom from February into late May.

4 Toad Trillium (Trillium sessile) is noticeable because of its erect reddish purple petals centering three mottled leaves. The name Trillium refers to the number three. This plant has three leaves, three sepals (that look like large petals), and three petals.

5 White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) follows the rule of three like other Trilliums. Of note, Trilliums are appreciated for their beauty but not for their smell, which is unappealing to humans but attractive to insects. Deer also love Trillium and these lovely flowers are becoming less common due to the overabundance of deer in our forests.

6 Virginia Waterleaf

(Hydrophyllum virginianum) bloom a little later than other spring flowers. Their large, mottled leaves make them easy to spot even when they are not blooming. Waterleaf spreads by underground rhizomes, and thus are usually found in dense colonies.

7 Look around, and you will notice many single Trout Lily (Erythronium Americanum) leaves with no flowers. A plant requires two leaves to produce enough energy to support this flower: three yellow petals and three yellow sepals, nodding down. Only a small fraction of the plants in a colony will bloom each spring.

8 Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is a pure white flower. Many regular petals surround a golden center. If you dug into the ground (please don’t!) you would find a red rootlike structure known as a rhizome — really an underground stem used to store food for the plant. Its red color gave the plant its name. Native Americans used it as a dye for baskets, pottery and paint.