Spring Beauty
Claytonia virginica var. virginica
Click or tap the section titles below to learn more about this species!
CLASSIFICATION: What’s in a name?
Scientific Name: Claytonia virginica var. virginica. The species name, virginica, is a reference to Virginia! If you pay attention you will notice several other plants which also refer to Virginia in the species name!
Common Name: Spring Beauty, Virginia Spring Beauty, Eastern Spring Beauty. This name is self-explanatory – a very beautiful flower that blooms in the early spring. What name would you use for a plant with a small, round edible corm (short, thickened underground stem for food storage)? How about fairy spud? That’s another descriptive name for Claytonia virginica!1
Family: Montiaceae (Montia family) Plants in the montia family usually have swollen roots and simple fleshy leaves without hairs that often form a rosette at the base of the plant. Their showy flowers have two sepals (a leaf-like structure on the outer part of the flower) and 4-5 petals. There are four species in Virginia in this family – two species of spring beauty and two species of fameflower.2
IDENTIFICATION: What does it look like?
Average Height: from 2” to 10”
Description: A perennial plant that grows from a corm (short, thickened underground stem for food storage) and is often found in large clusters. The somewhat fleshy green leaves are smooth, hairless and narrow, roughly 1-5½” long and about ¼-½” wide. The plant has both basal leaves and a pair of opposite leaves on the flowering stem. Flowers grow on an unbranched stem with often 6 to 10+ blooms on each stem. The flowers grow up to ½” wide and have 5 pink to white petals with darker pink stripes and a touch of yellow at the base. Just as these stripes and yellow petal bases draw your eye to the flower’s center, these are cues to help visiting pollinators locate the nectar! The flowers also have 5 stamens with pink anthers and 2 green sepals. The sepals remain on the plant, covering the ⅛-¼” fruit capsule which contains 6 round, flat seeds.2,3,4
Bloom time: Mar – May
Notes: Although there are two species of spring beauty in Virginia, Claytonia virginica var. virginica has long, narrow leaves while Claytonia caroliniana has wider, oval-shaped leaves.2
LOCATION: Where is it at home?
Range: Common throughout Virginia, but absent from the Eastern Shore and far SW Virginia.5 Spring beauty may be found from Quebec to Georgia and as far west as Minnesota south to Texas, although it is absent from Vermont and Maine. This is one of the more abundant spring ephemerals you will encounter in Riverview Park.
Geology/Soil: Typically found in nutrient-rich soils which include high levels of calcium, magnesium, and potassium, although it may grow in other soil types.5
Habitat: Most strongly associated with well-drained floodplain forests and moist to semi-moist upland forests, but can also be found in slightly more disturbed areas like old fields.2,5
CONNECTIONS: What are its relationships to other plants, animals, and humans?
Flora associations: Often found with a wide array of other spring-blooming wildflowers such as mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum), Virginia bluebell (Mertensia virginica), and cut-leaf toothwort (Cardamine concatenata).
Fauna associations: A wide variety of bees are among the most common visitors to these flowers. In addition to bumblebees (Bombus spp.), mason bees (Osmia spp.), cuckoo bees (Nomada spp.), and small carpenter bees (Ceratina spp.), mining bees (Andrena spp.) also pollinate the flowers. One species, Andrena erigeniae, the spring beauty mining bee, specializes in collecting pollen from Claytonia spp.4 Keep your eyes peeled for any bees you see in the area–if they are carrying pink pollen, it likely means they were visiting spring beauties! Butterflies may also be seen visiting these plants. In addition, some small mammals like Eastern chipmunks and white-footed mice eat the corms.4
Claytonia virginica var. virginica seeds have an attached nutrient-packed ‘elaiosome’–a tasty snack pack evolved to attract ants. These treats are especially attractive to winnow ants (genus Aphaenogaster) , some of the most common ants in eastern deciduous forests. While winnow ants collect Claytonia seeds in order to eat the elaiosomes, the ants generally don’t remove them from the seeds until they reach their nest. Once there they commonly discard the elaiosome-stripped seeds in a ‘midden’, the ant colony’s nutrient-rich waste pile, and a perfect place for seed germination.7, 8 This strategy of using ants for seed dispersal (formally known as myrmecochory) is common among many other spring ephemerals in our area, including yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum ssp. americanum), bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), perfoliate bellwort (Uvularia perforliata), and several species of violets (Viola spp.), among others.7
Human associations: The primary use of Claytonia virginica var. virginica is as food. The Algonquin people, Haudenosaunee people and many others harvest and cook the corms. In addition, the Haudenosaunee people use powdered corms to treat convulsions.9
We want these plants to thrive and for everyone who gets to visit the park to enjoy them, so remember – don’t pick flowers or other parts of the plant!!
Bibliography & Definitions
1 Appell, Scott D. “Spring Beauty—a Woodland Wildflower with Tasty Tubers.” Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1 Mar. 2006, www.bbg.org/article/spring_beauty_tasty_tubers. Accessed 26 Feb. 2024.
2 Weakley, A.S., J.C. Ludwig, and J.F. Townsend. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Bland Crowder, ed. Foundation of the Flora of Virginia Project, Inc., Richmond. Fort Worth: Botanical Research Institute of Texas Press, pp. 727-728.
3 “Claytonia Virginica (Virginia Spring Beauty): Minnesota Wildflowers.” www.minnesotawildflowers.info, www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/virginia-spring-beauty. Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.
4 “Spring Beauty (Claytonia Virginica).” www.illinoiswildflowers.info, www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/spring_beauty.htm. Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.
5 “Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora | Claytonia Virginica L.” Vaplantatlas.org, vaplantatlas.org/index.php?do=plant&plant=2629&search=Search. Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.
6 “Species Andrena Erigeniae – Spring Beauty Mining Bee.” Bugguide.net, 16 Mar. 2022, bugguide.net/node/view/267529. Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.
7 Clark, R. 2022. Are seed-dispersing ants elaiosome-limited? An experimental test in a Connecticut forest dominated by myrmecochorous plants. Food Webs 32 (2022)
8 In Defense of Plants. Episode 166 – Ants as Seed Dispersers a.k.a. The Myrmecochory Episode! June 24, 2018.
9 “BRIT – Native American Ethnobotany Database.” Naeb.brit.org, naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=claytonia+virginica. Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.
Definitions:
Spring ephemeral: A perennial plant which grows early in the spring – before the trees grow leaves – to take advantage of the sunlight reaching the forest floor. In less than 2 months, the plant grows, blooms, and produces seed and then disappears from view as the leaves die back.
Myrmecochory: The formal term used for the dispersal of seeds by ants.