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Winter's last snow patches melt away and spring comes to Missouri.
On the brown forest floor soon there will be spread a lush green carpet,
color flecked with the fleeting blooms of our many wildflowers.
For beneath the earth's surface all winter long
the patient flowers have lain asleep and packed away in miniature.
But during these first few mild days there's no need to wait longer.
Plant food stored within the buds, roots, or bulbs
gives strength for quick growth and sudden blossoming.
The story of each flower, like all other living things,
is that of the soil upon which they grow and depend.
Each place fosters its own particular species,
arranged in definite groups with other plants and animals.
Hello, what's this?
Clear away the leaves and dead grasses and we'll have a look.
It's a tiny Johnny Jump Up and a bluet.
The Johnny Jump Up on the left is sometimes called a wild pansy
but is the smallest and earliest rising member of the whole violet family.
Johnny appears almost cream colored, but often he is blue.
And so is the bluet as its name implies.
The many nicknames of these four petaled blossoms
like innocence, wild forget me not,
and blue eyed babies prove their wide appeal.
It is rather ironical that both of these pretty little wildflowers
grow most profusely on land that has been burned over,
grazed too closely, or otherwise exhausted.
Nearly always the harbinger of spring provides
the first thrill to those who watch for early blossoms.
It has been coaxed out by the warm sun as early as mid-February.
Erigenia is its scientific name meaning "the early born,"
commonly called salt and pepper it is mostly found in the Ozarks,
in rich woods, low thickets, and at the base of bluffs.
Among the best known of our early wildflowers is the spring beauty.
These are indeed flowers of the sun,
opening only in sunshine or strong light.
Spring beauties grow in rich or rocky woods and prairies,
along streams, and quite often in company
with the common blue violet,
one of our prettiest, most familiar and beloved flowers.
Sometimes there are spring beauties on a city lawn
where long ago there was an oak woods.
Bloodroot is brief and fleeting, a delicate flower whose petals fall easily.
It is a true poppy and most poppies last but a day.
Its root when cut or bruised exudes a thick, blood-like liquid
giving both its common name and the scientific name, sanguinaria.
Indians used the bright red juice as a paint and dye.
Wrapped in a scalloped leaf the single white flower bud
emerges into the sunlight.
The leaf spreads away to reveal one of our prettiest wildflowers.
Nearby an early spring lily can almost always be found.
Dogstooth violet, also known as adder's tongue.
Its name suggested by the sharp purplish point
of the young plant darting above ground in earliest spring.
Often these flowers will be found grouped together
as if planted in a bed.
They seem to thrive best on hilltops, but grow in many kinds of places.
Adder's tongue worships the light, turning on its stalk to follow the sun.
Its faint fragrance rather suggests of tulip,
another related lily.
Here we find anemones whose Greek name means "wind flower."
They dance in the slightest breeze.
Members of the buttercup family
two little ones look so much alike that it's difficult to tell them apart.
If white and appearing very early,
it is probably isopyrum, even then you can't be sure,
but the leaflets nearest the flower of isopyrum
are joined at one point without separate stalks.
And anemonella are usually tinted with pink or lavender
and its leaflets are each on a separate stalk.
Both are common and grow in rocky, dry, open woods
and on slopes, generally in sour soils.
All at once the Dutchman's breeches are in bloom.
Crisp as popcorn, they stand in the April woods,
laundry lines hung full of fairy garments.
Many persons consider the delicate lace-like leaves
as beautiful as the blossoms.
The snowy white pantaloons are formed
by two of the four petals joining and growing together.
They're found in rich woods and moist ground along limestone bluffs.
Another lily which blossoms in late March or early April
is trillium, sometimes called wake robin.
Trillium sessile, also known as Black Susan,
is the commonest Missouri species.
The three leaf structure gives this delicate plant its name.
Unlike some of its relatives,
this trillium possesses a rather pleasant odor.
Early April produces an oddly formed and relatively rare flower, the bellwort.
It too is a member of the lily family
and is found on slopes of ravines or bluffs, or in wooded bottomlands.
One of the glories of Missouri springtime is the redbud.
Usually before other trees are in foliage the redbud appears,
later producing little lavender flowers in profuse clusters
along its branches and twigs.
Very rarely the flowers are white.
Strangely enough, the redbud is a member of the pea family,
closely related to ordinary legumes.
It is disappearing along our highways, a victim of its admirers,
of people who thoughtlessly destroy the very beauty they enjoy.
While branches are not replaced in a year,
a twist of the wrist and ten seconds destroys ten years of growth.
The three lobed bronzy leaves of the hypatophyta, or liverwort,
have withstood the winter
and now among them silky new green leaves unfold in the sun.
About the middle of April these blossoms may be found
in a few spots on the banks near streams or in woods.
White, pale pink, or pale blue,
the flowers grow straight from the ground.
This is our bluebell, not the bluebell of English poets
nor the Bonnie bluebell of Scotland.
It is the Virginia cowslip.
Along streams or in shady places, this pretty flower
will often be found a neighbor to phlox, violets, and the ferns.
In thickets and open woods the mayapple, or mandrake,
produces two large umbrella- shaped leaves carrying between
them a hard bud which will finally open
in late April into a large, heavily fragrant flower.
The mayapple bears eatable fruit which ripens in August.
Here and there in the meadows,
scarlet tufts grow in the green like flakes of fire.
This is Indian paintbrush, or painted cup.
Blossoming from May to July,
it is found in upland prairies, glades, and moist woods.
Actually it is the upper short leaves or bracts
which produce the red flames.
The flowers themselves are pale yellow little blooms, almost hidden.
One of the great events of the springtime is
the sudden appearance on our hills of the flowering dogwood,
another's suffering victim of thoughtless roadside raiders.
Again, it is the bracts which create all the beauty.
They spread out like lovely graceful petals,
surrounding each cluster of the dogwood's yellow insignificant flowers.
As the late spring sun filters into moist shaded glens
the wild iris or blue flag quickly unfurls its delicately colored petals.
But at sundown the day's flowers slowly curl up and are done.
The showy lady's slipper is as rare and precious as it is lovely.
You may find in moist crevices of limestone bluffs and ledges,
along deep cut streams, or in rich, damp woods.
Its fragrance is as rich as anything in our gardens and greenhouses.
Whippoorwill's shoe the Indians called it,
moccasin flower is another name, perhaps more descriptive.
The time of its blossoming seems to vary with the seasons,
but it is becoming more rare each year.
Many of our prettiest flowers are very common,
not likely to be harmed by picking,
particularly if care is taken not to uproot the whole plant.
But it is not worthwhile for the sake of a few hours pleasure
to prevent other people from enjoying the rare flowers,
still less to exterminate them altogether.
Remember, never pick branches of our beautiful flowering trees and shrubs.
Our wildflowers, if we admire but do not harm them,
will bloom in beauty again and again
to delight those who pass this way in other springs.