A bonus for getting out into the woods in early spring is enjoying those wildflowers that bloom while everything else is still asleep and dead looking. There is a short period when the ground warms a little and the forest floor is still receiving full sun that these early flowers, called ephemerals, manage to grow, bloom, produce seeds, and then die back in a short time frame. To pull this off they have a growth cycle backwards from other plants.

To take advantage of the sunlight reaching the ground prior to tree leaf out, ephemerals must start growing when the soil is still cold, which makes it tough to take up nutrients and water to do what plants do. To get past this, ephemerals go with an unusual growth cycle that goes something like this: soil temperature warms up a little in late February/early March and the ephemerals wake up. Pulling nutrients from an underground bulb, they kick in high gear and put out leaves for energy, blooms for pollination and eventual production of seeds, all before late May. Low soil temperatures make water uptake difficult and so most ephemerals only grow in areas where the soil moisture is high and nutrient rich, such as along streams.

As temperatures increase, the ephemerals begin to die back. They pull nutrients out of the leaves and send them to their underground storage bulb for use next growing season. The above ground portion dies, and the underground part goes dormant during the summer, the reverse of how most other plants do it. After sleeping through the summer, the plant wakes up in the fall and begins growing roots and next springs’ buds. This underground growth continues through the winter (again backwards), and when the soil again warms up a little, above-ground growth begins, and the cycle continues.

Having such a short growing season has its costs, as it takes a long time for ephemerals to reach maturity. Trout lilies can take over 8 years to grow large enough to finally flower. Also, blooming while it’s still cold means a limited number of pollinator species to do their thing, but bumblebees are hardy enough to get out and collect pollen and nectar, as well as mining bees, flies, and even gnats. Bloom time is often very short, and some plants like bloodroot and twinleaf have blossoms lasting only one day before the petals fall off. But the flower stamens produce large amounts of pollen within hours after opening, which quickly attracts pollinators since so few flowers are blooming that early. You’ve got to get out regularly to see some of these flowers or you’ll miss them. Some ephemerals to look for in our area include Trout Lily, Dutchman’s Britches, Spring Beauty, Virginial Bluebells, Trilliums, Twinleaf, and Anemones.