Fringed Polygala or Gaywings Polygala paucifolia At first glance, the color and texture of this flower call to mind an orchid. The complicated structure, complete with wing-like sepals, resembles a flying bird or airplane. Two petals are joined together to make a tube; a third, lower petal is fringed. The rosy pink or purple flowers…
Category: Pink flowers
Honesty
Money Plant or Honesty Lunaria annua A native of Europe, this biennial has spread across much of the United States because it seeds so easily. In it’s first year it is a small plant, but in the second year it grows to 3 feet in height before it flowers and goes to seed. Well established now…
Dames Rocket
Hesperis matronalis Dames rocket looks (and acts!) a lot like honesty: a tall, introduced, spring-blooming plant with four-petaled flowers in pinkish purple or white. However, the leaves of damesrocket are elongated and lance-shaped,with a slightly toothed edge. The seedpod is also very long and thin, not round like money plant. It blooms in mid-May, while…
Spring Beauty
Claytonia caroliniana and Claytonia virginica There are two kinds of Spring Beauties in our area. Above is the “wide-leaved” Spring Beauty, or Claytonia caroliniana. The single pair of leaves on this small plant are ovate to lanceolate; the margin is entire. The lovely pink to white flowers are sweetly marked –each of the 5 petals…
Virginia Bluebells
Mertensia virginica Virginia bluebells are also called Virginia cowslip, or Roanoke bells. I first spotted them here in Blacksburg in a friend’s yard, but soon learned that this native wildflower grows extensively along the banks of streams and rivers in this part of Virginia, making it a riparian species. Last year I saw them growing…
Gill-Over-The-Ground vs. Purple Dead Nettle
Glechoma hederacea I’m going to take a break from weeding my garden to recognize two very fast-spreading members of the mint family (Laminaceae). The first one gets the Award for being “Most Insufferable”. Gill-over-the-ground (AKA Ground Ivy or Creeping Charlie) is a low-growing mint with a creeping habit. Like many garden weeds, it tolerates the…
Cutleaf Toothwort
Dentaria laciniata or Cardamine concatenata The leaves of this early spring wildflower occur in distinctive whorls of three. Each leaflet is deeply cut, sometimes so much so that it looks like there are five leaflets. Clusters of white to pinkish flowers are born at the top of the plant; each flower has four petals and…
Hepatica
Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis) Three-lobed leaves that resemble the human liver! Hepatica! Liver leaf! On the east coast, you may find this early-blooming spring wildflower in the sharp-leaved or round-leaved form. And just to make it more complicated, they sometimes hybridize! Here is a description of hepatica from Wikipedia: “Bisexual flowers with pink, purple, blue, or…
VIRGINIA WILDFLOWERS 