Warm air, moist soil bring out bevy of wildflowers
By Jody Heaston
The forest floor comes alive every spring. As the sun warms up the forest soil, it awakens special tiny wildflowers. Late winter through early summer is the best time to see spring wildflowers, also called spring ephemerals.
These wildflowers are special not only for their appearance but the short timeline in which they exist. To put it in perspective, these flowering plants must grow, bloom, be pollinated and produce seeds in a relatively short period of time - between six to eight weeks. They are perennial plants that grow from underground corms or rhizomes. They can put on such an early show because they have stored food in their bulbs from the previous year’s growth.
Why does this happen in spring? Spring is the perfect time to take advantage of the soil moisture, soil nutrients and the excess sunlight that reaches the forest floor. The excess sunlight factor is very important to these plants. Since the leaves are not out on the trees, the warm sunlight can reach the forest floor. Most of the early ephemerals are short plants. By staying close to the ground, they can stay warm and bloom. As the season goes on, different and taller flowers began to grow and bloom. Each week between March and May, new flowers can be seen.
Another factor that these flowers take advantage of this time of year is the soil moisture. It is at its highest because the trees are not actively soaking it all up. Same is true with the soil nutrients, which are also at the highest levels. A considerable amount of decay from the previous year’s leaves took place the previous autumn, leaving a bumper crop of nutrients in the soil. The spring ephemeral wildflowers have first crack at this abundant food supply.
What about the unpredictable temperature extremes this time of year? How do the leaves on these tiny plants not get damaged? The answer lies in the warm, moist ground that buffers the extremes of the day and night temperatures. Plants nearer to the ground leaf out sooner than the plants 30 or 50 feet above the ground. Supporting this idea is the fact that the earliest flowering ephemerals are shorter than the flowers that come later in the season.
In some cases, the earliest of spring wildflowers are not only close to the ground, but they ha
ve leaves that surround the main flower to trap warm air, such as Bloodroot. Another successful strategy is some wildflowers, such as the Liverwort, are covered with dense hairs that trap warm air.
As you walk the trails in the park, make sure you are looking down so you don’t miss all the beauty on the forest floor. Some common spring wildflowers are spring beauty, cut-leaved toothwort, trout lily and trillium.
Comments