Claytonia Species, Spring Beauty, Good Morning Spring, Virginia Springbeauty

Edible Uses
Leaves; Root.
Root - raw or cooked. Rich in starch, it has a pleasant nutty flavour. A radish-like flavour whe...Read Moren raw, it tastes like a cross between a potato and a chestnut when cooked. The root is rich in vitamins A and C.

Antispasmodic; Contraceptive.
A cold infusion or decoction of the powdered roots has been given to children with convulsions.

It has been said that eating the raw plants can permanently prevent conception

They will tolerate sandy soil in shade. They will spread but will get competitions from taller (and aggressive) native plants like Jack ...Read Morein the Puplit, and sometimes Early Meadowrue if you plant them together. Even trillium and bloodroots will give them trouble if you tried to plant them too close together. It will be nice if someone send a picture of drifts of spring beauty mixes with toothwort, wood anemone, rue anemone, (both this and false), or even oak fern!

A lovely little Spring wildflower that welcomes the sunshine in late March/early April here in West KY. They naturalize in great colonies...Read More across close trimmed yards and fields.

The edible tuber is about 3" below the surface of the ground, and one can judge the size of the tuber by the size of the flower rosette. It makes a clump similar to a clump of Fescue and the largest tubers are under the rosettes that are 6" or bigger.

They make a beautiful display in early Spring. Don't put it anywhere that you will need to mow early. They last a few weeks and you wil...Read Morel not want to mow them down. I like the fact that they completely disapear after blooming and you get that wonderful surprise in mid April ( here in southern Indiana). I was glad that I found out what they were called.

Around here it is firmly entrenched in most of the older lawns.
Never a problem.
The most beautiful sight occurs in very la...Read Morete
Spring/early Summer when it all flowers at once.
Suddenly it seems we've had a snowfall.
This affect lingers for several days.
Quite lovely.

I finally found it amongst the pictures. I consider it my alltime spring favorite; it is sprinkled all over my city front yard. I am try...Read Moreing to imitate a scene on the edge of the woods as well as I can manage. A huge pinoak and equally large hickory on either of the yard provide nothing but shade and dried our root systems as growing medium for those plants that manage to survive here. I think I have the most imaginative, prettiest spring front yard in the whole neighborhood, if I say so myself :>)). Now that I have discovered DG, I will try to learn all the names of the plants displayed in this lovely spring scene. Later in the year, it gets pretty boring.

I'm rating this a positive, because I see its potential. I spent a half-day digging up clumps from our backyard, with the hope that by p...Read Morelanting them in a clump (in a BED) they'll have more impact. Because when they're mixed in with the grass, they look pretty weedy (or a pretty weed, depending on how close up you are to them.)

a native woodland plant--it is one of the first to bloom in the spring....a very pretty little plant, ours are pale pink with darker pink...Read More veins. Does not appear to be invasive, I collect the seedheads when the plant has turned yellow, and the seeds are tiny, shiny black flat seeds.

Somewhat difficult to transplant. Bulbs can be dug as plant is going dormant, dried, and planted in fall in new location. They can also ...Read Morebe dug with soil ball intact around roots as they are beginning to emerge. This is the method most likely to succeed, but typically the flowering cycle is disrupted for up to several years.

As seed is setting, flexible stem bends to the ground, and seedheads must be wrapped, otherwise seed immediately is dispersed to the soil below when it is ripe. This is the most reliable way of propagating plant; new plants germinate readily from seed planted in situ.

Spring beauty is a delicate, much-beloved, early spring-blooming, native Missouri wildflower that typically occurs statewide in rich, moi...Read Morest woodlands and valleys, meadows, prairies and somewhat dry upland woods. A low-growing plant that features clusters of flowers (to 3/4" wide) with five white to pinkish petals with pink veins and pink anthers on thin stems and narrow, linear, grass-like, dark green leaves (usually in pairs). Plant typically grows to 4-6" at bloom time, but foliage continues to grow after bloom and may eventually reach 9-12" before leaves disappear in late spring to early summer as plant goes into dormancy. Naturalizes somewhat easily in agreeable environments. Small, potato-like, underground tubers (corms) are edible (chestnut-like flavor) and were in fact consumed by early Americans, but are time-consuming to collect in quantity sufficient for a meal.