Spring beauties I: Claytonia and Lindera

Besides Hepatica, quite a few other spring beauties are usually in flower in April.

Claytonia virginica

The one which literally bears this common name: Claytonia virginica, is a short lived ephemeral. After enchanting us with its cheerful flowers it will retreat in the ground for the rest of the season. It certainly needs a long beauty sleep!
Others though, will remain and provide beauty, shade, shelter and food for the wildlife until late fall.

Among the first native shrubs to flower in our woodlands is Lindera benzoin, the Northern spicebush.

If hiking in moist woods early in the spring and notice a yellow tinge among the otherwise bare trees branches, it is for sure Lindera benzoin in flower (reason why another common name for it is Forsythia of the wilds). It usually grows as an understory small tree/large shrub on bottomland woodlands and river edges. The yellow flowers appear in small ‘bunches’ (there are female & males plants) and are a sign of the long awaited spring being very useful to early pollinators!

Lindera benzoin it is one of the first native shrubs/small tree to flower in the spring; it can be grown in a partly shaded location as a large specimen (by planting few plants together) or in small groups for larger woodland gardens

Northern spicebush puts its best show in early fall when the foliage turns yellow, making a wonderful background for the shiny red, abundant fruits. The fruits provide food for countless birds in the fall, but are always in great abundance and some are always left to be admired. In the garden, you need female and male plants growing together in order to have fruits..

The fleshy part of the fruits was/it is chopped and utilized as an allspice (hence the name). The foliage is also aromatic and the leaves and twigs were used to prepare a tea. Not least important, the Spicebush is a favourite larval host for the beautiful Spicebush swallowtail and Promethea silkmoth!

About fruits, seeds and germination:

The seeds are hydrophilic and need to be sown right after collecting or kept moist. After a period of cold/moist stratification they will germinate promptly in the spring (see the post: A late arrival – Lindera benzoin seedlings).

Lindera benzoin, Northern spicebush fruits & seeds