Erigenia bulbosa: Harbinger-of-Spring Wildflower Ushers in Spring

Summary: Erigenia bulbosa is known commonly as harbinger of spring or pepper and salt. Its flowers announce spring with blooms in late February and last into April.

Erigenia bulbosa in flower, C & O Canal National Historical Park, Maryland: image by Fritzflohrreynolds, CC BY SA, via Wikimedia Commons

Erigenia bulbosa is a welcome sight in woodlands of eastern and central Canada and the United States.

Known commonly as harbinger-of-spring, the New World native opens its flowers late in February. The early spring bloomer exults in springtime's reduced competition for dappled light as the sun's rays, unhindered by bare deciduous (Latin: deciduus, "that which falls off") trees, warm the forest floor.

A member of the carrot family of Apiaceae, the petite wildflower grows from a sphere-shaped tuber. Its tuber puts forth one or more stems, which shade from green at the base to reddish brown or purple along the stem's length.

Leaves usually sprout as three leaflets with shiny undersides and dull green topsides.

Consistent with the carrot family, Erigenia bulbosa tops its stems with umbels, which are short flower stalks spreading out from a common point like the ribs of an umbrella.

Its flowers have pure white teardrop-shaped petals contrasting with reddish anthers that darken to chocolate and then to black. The speckled contrast between anthers and petals is responsible for the wildflower's other common name of pepper-and-salt.

In early April, flowers close, and the wildflower's aboveground parts wither. Underground, its tuber awaits next year's spring to reveal its presence as an early blooming wildflower.

harbinger-of-spring (Erigenia bulbosa); West Virginia; March 20, 2012: Marytherese N. One Bear/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Public Domain, via USFWS National Digital Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Erigenia bulbosa in flower, C & O Canal National Historical Park, Maryland; March 10, 2013: Fritzflohrreynolds, CC BY SA, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Erigenia_bulbosa_-_Harbinger_Of_Spring.jpg

harbinger-of-spring (Erigenia bulbosa); West Virginia; March 20, 2012: Marytherese N. One Bear/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Public Domain, via USFWS National Digital Library @ https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/digital/collection/natdiglib/id/17520