 |
| Hepatica, Anemone acutiloba, is among the very first wildflowers to bloom in the eastern deciduous forest. |
Once the days start to lengthen, the frogs and salamanders are congregating in vernal pools and the heat energy from the sun begins to feel stronger, it's time to search for humble but cheery hepatica. The woodlands are still quiet and last year's oak leaves cover the forest floor. Among those leaves and in the sheltered nooks and crannies of EOA's Dolostone cliffs and boulders are the many-petaled, hairy stemmed flowers of our search.
 |
| Hepatica flowers periscoping up from the leaf litter. |
Hepatica has a long history of name changes. Botanists have gone back and forth since the plant was originally described in 1753 by Linnaeus. Linnaeus gave the plant the name Anemone hepatica. Even today, depending on the source, you can encounter a variety of names. older texts like Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, by Lawrence Newcomb, have the flower set in the genus Hepatica and divided into two distinct species, H. acutiloba and H. americana, sharp-lobed hepatica and round-lobed hepatica respectively. Other sources like USDA Plants keep the same genera but lumped the flowers into one species, H. nobilis, and classifying the sharp-lobed plants and the round-lobed plants as varieties. Finally, others such as Flora of North America, have put the beleaguered plants back into the genus Anemone and separated them once again into two distinct species, A. acutiloba and A. americana, again, sharp-lobed and round-lobed respectivly. Confused? So is the poor plant! Just call it hepatica and most folks will know exactly what you are talking about.
 |
| This crab spider does not care one bit what humans are currently calling this flower. It just knows that it's a great place to catch a meal! |
These flowers have many interesting parts to their life history in addition to being so captivating to the human eye. Its role as an early bloomer makes it particularly important to early insects. There are many kinds of insects such as beetles and solitary bees that welcome the sight of hepatica as a potential food source. However, if the aforementioned insect is hoping for a sip or two of sweet, energy giving nectar, they will be disappointed. Hepatica does not offer any kind of nectar reward for visiting insects but does produce good quantities of pollen which is white in color.
 |
| White colored pollen is the prime target of some early solitary bees, |
According to Heather Holm in her excellent book, Pollinators of Native Plants, small carpenter bees from the genus Ceratina and sweat bees from the genus Lasioglossum are the most frequent visitors. She also notes that hepatica is able to self pollinate although that particular method of reproduction results in a smaller number of seeds being produced. It's a good strategy on the plant's part given the volatile nature of early spring weather making pollinator visits far from guaranteed.
 |
| Hepatica flowers are only open on warmer, sunnier days. These are conditions that are more likely to result in visits from potential pollinators. |
Those familiar with hepatica flowers have probably noticed that they are found in a fairly wide range of colors. While white seems to be fairly common, shades of pink, purple and blue are not unheard of. Why is this? In Carol Gracie's Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast, A Natural History, she addresses this phenomenon which apparently occurs in other spring flowers as well. A study on the variations in color of hepatica was done by Edgar Anderson in 1936. He looked at the entire range of the plant and discovered that the blues and pinks were much more common in the western part of the range (think Ozarks) while white was the predominant color in the east (New England). The supposition is that the white is more easily seen by insects in the darker coniferous woods of the east while the brighter, more open hardwoods of the Midwest cause the purples to be more easily seen. It's an interesting concept and aren't we lucky that we can get all the colors in one place! Here are just a few variations seen on the preserve in the last couple of weeks.
One other thing that makes hepatica unique is its strategy for capturing light energy from the sun and turning it into food energy. Yes, that's right, we're talking photosynthesis. Like other spring flowers growing in forested habitats, there is a narrow window of time from when the plant emerges to complete leaf-out from the canopy of trees above. There are a lot of different strategies employed analogous to the tortoise and the hare story. Some spring ephemerals simply race to get all their energy harvested from the sun, reproduction done and then they disappear underground for the rest of the year.
Hepatica takes a more tortoise-like approach. After flowering, new green leaves emerge from the base of the plant. They gradually become dark green and have a thick, somewhat waxy feel to them. This is similar to other plants who sport evergreen leaves. The tough nature of the leaves allow them to absorb what sunlight they can during the growing months and continue doing so once the canopy opens back up. The leaves then persist through the winter months turning a deep purple/burgundy color. By the time early spring once again rolls around, last years leaves are beginning to decay.
 |
| At flowering time, the previous year's leaves are often hidden in the leaf litter of the forest floor. |
 |
| Old leaves are more readily visible on hepatica plants growing on cliffs and boulders. |
 |
| Starting at the base, this year's new leaves unfurl. |
 |
The leaves themselves must unroll from their compressed state.
|
 |
| New leaves are not always green right away. |
 |
| Once open, the leaves will take on their green color. Some plants will show variegated leaves throughout the season. |
 |
| This hepatica is done flowering and ready to store up as much energy as it can for next year's flower production. |
 |
| As fall turns into winter, the 3 lobed hepatica leaves will turn a deep burgundy color. |
The name hepatica comes from the Greek word "hepar" meaning liver. It's referring to the shape and the winter time color of the leaves. The Doctrine of Signatures was an ancient belief that if a plant resembled a part of the human body, then that plant had medicinal properties that would be useful in treating ailments specific to that body part. For a long time, hepatica was used to treat problems of the liver. In fact, according to Gracie in Springtime Flowers of the Northeast, in 1883, somewhere between 425,000 and 450,000 pounds of dried hepatica leaves were used in the U.S. Wow! Most of it was used in what we now know were totally useless "medicines". Modern studies of hepatica leaves have shown that the plant is not medically relevant for liver treatments.
What hepatica does do for us is lift our spirits at the end of long, cold, dark winters. It's cheery flowers, delicate stamens, and range of delightful colors encourages us to be outside and observing carefully the world around us.
Posted by: Robyn Wright-Strauss
