An Eastern Belly Flower

Posted on March 20, 2018 by elizabeth

It’s March 20, the vernal equinox, and I’m sitting by the woodstove, watching the snow fall. Four to eight inches are predicted by tomorrow night, possibly more, and I just got back from a trip to the Southwest and haven’t been out botanizing at home in about two weeks. Friends are posting pictures of bloodroot and Dutchman’s breeches that are blooming nearby, but it’ll be a few days before I can go out hunting.

look how tiny it is, next to that maple leaf!

Instead I’m looking at my pictures of Erigenia bulbosa, which, other than skunk cabbage, is the earliest blooming forb in the Maryland piedmont. This diminutive perennial plant grows only about 10 centimeters tall, barely poking above the leaves on the forest flower at bloom time. It’s a true ephemeral: after blooming, the finely divided compound leaves open a little further and the plant will grow a little taller, but it dies back before spring is over.

The inflorescence is a compound umbel (an umbel of umbels). The individual flowers are minute, comprising five white petals and five stamens, whose anthers start red but quickly turn black.

I found these blooming on February 28 this year, which is about as early as I’ve seen it. The blooming period lasts about a month. Look for it in rich, moist woodlands, especially near rivers.

Erigenia means “born early”; bulbosa is for the (edible) corm from which the plant emerges. Around here it’s called harbinger-of-spring, or sometimes pepper-and-salt (for the anthers and petals); older, less common names include turkey-pea, turkey-foot, and ground-nut¹. The genus is monotypic (meaning, it only has one species), and this might be the smallest plant in its family (Apiaceae).

It’s uncommon in Maryland (listed S3). The Maryland Biodiversity Project has records for it in the counties of Harford, Montgomery, and Washington. There are a few other occurrences of it east of the Appalachians (from northern North Carolina to southern New York), but mostly it’s a plant of the Midwest, where it ranges from central Alabama to central Michigan, and westward into eastern Kansas. In Wisconsin and New York it’s listed as endangered; in Pennsylvania, it’s threatened.

¹The History and Folklore of North American Wildflowers, Timothy Coffey

Hidden Flowers

Posted on April 3, 2016 by elizabeth

Cryptantha (and maybe other) species
aka cat’s eyes; popcorn flowers
Boraginaceae

According to extensive research done at the San Diego State University, there are 130 species of cryptantha in North America. And by “cryptantha” I mean all the species formerly placed in the genus Cryptantha, which has been split into five genera (the other four are Emerocarya, Greeneocharis, Johnstonella, and Oreocarya). All of these are native to the western US.

Within those 130 species are 31 varieties. For the most part, the species are differentiated by details of the nutlets, which typically range in size from half a millimeter to as much as several millimeters. Even the large ones require a damn good hand lens, or better yet a dissecting microscope.

My interest in identifying and classifying wildflowers does not go this far, so uncharacteristically I will be content saying that I found several different species of cryptanthas (not necessarily Cryptanthas) during my recent Death Valley trip.

To give a sense of scale, the above close-up view was taken from this specimen (note the penny):

which might – might – be Cryptantha muricata (pointed cryptantha).

These are belly flowers for sure! Here’s a different species:

And a third:

And winning the “wait, are those even flowers?!” prize:

The flowers in these two pictures (above and right) are less than one millimeter across.

Belly Daisies

Posted on March 28, 2016 by elizabeth

desert star; Mojave desertstar
Monoptilon bellioides

rock daisy; Emory’s rockdaisy
Perityle emoryi

woolly daisy; easterbonnets
Eriophyllum wallacei
(formerly Antheropeas wallacei)

false woolly daisy; yellowray Fremont’s gold
Syntrichopappus fremontii

These four Death Valley belly flowers are in the Asteraceae, of course. All are native to the desert Southwest. All are itty-bitty (note the penny in the first photo above).

I found desert star to be especially charming.

young blossoms just opening

mature blossom

rock daisy is about the size of a pinky-nail

woolly daisy is about the same size

yellowray Fremont’s-gold is a smidge larger (that’s a forefinger nail)

And a special bonus bellyflower: can you see the purple blossom in the upper right of the above photo? The whole thing is about the size of one of the yellow rays. It’s called salt sandspurry (Spergularia salina; Caryophyllaceae). I didn’t even know it was there until I looked at the picture!

Belly Flowers

Posted on March 26, 2016 by elizabeth

In a few recent posts I’ve used the phrase “belly flowers”, regional slang for plants that you need to be on the ground to see. That’s a bit of an exaggeration (knees will do in most cases), but it makes the point. There’s no official definition, of course, but offhand I’d say about a dozen or so of my Death Valley finds could be called belly flowers.

desert star and a Cryptantha species, with 77mm lens cap

Since I’m enamored of tiny flowers, I was charmed to find these plants. I’ve written about a few already (the two gilias and Fremont’s phacelia). Over the next few days I’ll write about a few more.

purplemat, broad-leaved gilia, desert star, and Cryptantha species, with dime for scale

Elizabeth's Wildflower Blog

hunting in the Maryland piedmont (mostly)

Tag Archives: belly flowers

An Eastern Belly Flower

Hidden Flowers

Belly Daisies

Belly Flowers