One of the Earliest...

Hepatica acutiloba

Liverwort

Beautiful specimens found scattered at a ratio of about 3 plants for each square yard running along the bottom length of a 50' x 50' north facing slope at Faylor Lake's inlet, Middle Creek, in central Pennsylvania on April 8, 2010.  On this day, temperatures reached 80 degrees, made for 2010's unusually warm start to springtime in this region.  April 2010 saw temperatures reach the 90s.  The summer turned out to be extremely warm, and rainfall ended up deficient by up to 9"  in many areas.  It was a tough one.

Springtime 2011 thus far has been relatively normal to chilly in terms of temperatures while in the precipitation department, the persistent showers and humidity are pretty typical for April here.  We are planning to make it back to this location this weekend, hoping to find them healthy and prolific once again.  Since temperatures here have only gotten up to around 70 degrees , and only a few days thus far, it is unknown if it has been warm enough to prompt their reproductive stage, and coax those adorable flowers into the day.   

Liverwort flowers gracefully crown the tops of hairy, curvy stems like a 5 petaled parasol and may be white, light or dark lavender in color.   

According to the Doctrine of Signatures the plant was once regarded as useful to treat liver ailments.   Their lovely ruddy, leathery foilage curiously resembles the human liver and makes this somewhat rare wildflower somewhat quirky as well.

They also happen to be one of my all time favorite wildflowers... but then there are so many of those!  :)