Spring Beauty

Claytonia virginica

© Mark McKnight, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

Scientific Description

Spring beauty, (Claytonia virginica), is an herbaceous, low plant with pink or white flowers in the early spring. These flowers have longitudinal dark pink stripes and are produced early in the year, from January through May depending on their location. The flowers open during the day and then close during the night.

This species is found from Maine through South Carolina and westward to Minnesota to Texas.

The plants grow to a height of 4 to 12 inches and they reproduce underground via structures called corms. The plant can be rather spectacular when grown in large patches or clusters.  After the seed capsules have been shed, the plant portions above ground disappear without leaving large gaps in the yard.

The underground corms have been eaten in the past by colonial people.  The underground structures have a sweet, nutty, chestnut-like flavor.

The spring beauty grows in hardiness zones 4 through 9 in moist, slightly acidic soils, partial shade, and a variety of soil types.  It can be propagated using either the corms or the seeds.  One note of caution — the seeds should be planted as soon as they ripen on the parent plant.

All images © Mark McKnight, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

Habitat Value

This species has great value for bees in our portion of the country.  In addition, other pollinators may visit it periodically.

Landscape Value 

Written by Matt Whitaker for WMWA Landscape Architects

Right now, all over Chattanooga in yards and woodlands, this little flower is brightening spring with its presence. I thought of spring beauty as an uncommon woodland edge wildflower until I saw them in so many yards in Chattanooga. You can think of them as one of the few remnants of the native forest and grasslands that once stood here. They have somehow managed to persist in the urban and suburban lawn habitats that replaced the native ones. Some of the plants may be decades old or older. So next time you see their white flowers with long pink stripes in your yard, pause a moment before you mow or weed eat and gaze at history in the same flowers that generations of Native Americans and later European settlers have seen in the same places — perhaps sometimes even the same plant. If you’re lucky enough to have a non-lawn perennial planting with spring beauty, they go well with almost any other plants that leaf out later since they disappear underground by mid-summer.