Specimen record
Spring Beauty
Claytonia virginica
Description
A dainty spring ephemeral that forms extensive carpets on the forest floor in early May. Each plant bears a loose raceme of small white to pale pink flowers with darker pink veins on the petals. Spring beauty grows from a small, deep corm and, like other spring ephemerals, completes its above-ground life cycle before the tree canopy closes.
Identification tips
- 1Flowers white to pink with distinctive darker pink veining on each petal
- 2Only two opposite, narrow, grass-like stem leaves
- 3Flowers open on sunny days and close in overcast or cold conditions
- 4Plants 10–20 cm tall in loose clusters
- 5Grows from a small round corm deep in the soil
Specimen & preservation notes
Dig carefully to include the corm, which is small and deep. Press the entire plant with flowers open — collect on a sunny afternoon for best results. Petals become translucent when dried, so press between sheets of waxed paper to preserve color detail.
Habitats
Collection calendar
| Wk | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||
| 3 | ||||||||
| 4 |
Collection notes
Season check
Guide window matches observed bloom.
Flowering records: 48 iNaturalist observations, Massachusetts · Nearby: 55 observations within 25 km