Spring Ephemerals: Difference between revisions
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==Description== | ==Description== | ||
[[File:trout_lily.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Photo of a yellow trout lily (''Erythronium americanum''), a common spring ephemeral in our area.]] | |||
Typically spring ephemerals are herbaceous low growing wildflowers with short lifecycles and belowground storage organs which store excess sugars and carbohydrates that the plants live off of for the remainder of the year once they go dormant again. These plants are often the earliest sprouting plants within the forest—since they have to take advantage of the sunlight before the trees grow their leaves and shade out the plants on the forest floor—and will have produced flowers, released seeds, and reentered dormancy before most other plants have begun to produce leaves. | |||
A major advantage that many spring ephemerals share is the possession of an underground storage organ of some sort, like a bulb, corm, or rhizome. These organs allow ephemerals to store the excess quantities of sugars and carbohydrates they made during the early spring and summer in order to draw on those stores after they no longer have access to the sunlight. | |||
[[File:trout-lily-bulbs.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Photo of the bulbs of a trout lily which grows throughout the season.]] | |||
==Reproduction== | ==Reproduction== | ||
Revision as of 21:20, 2 May 2022
Spring Ephemerals are a subcategory of wildflowers which can be found on the forest floor in temperate areas and go through the entirety of their life cycle before the forest canopy closes in early summer. These flowers are found across a variety of plant families including: Berberidaceae (Barberry), Liliaceae (Lily), Portulacaceae (Purslane), and Geraniaceae (Geranium).
Description
Typically spring ephemerals are herbaceous low growing wildflowers with short lifecycles and belowground storage organs which store excess sugars and carbohydrates that the plants live off of for the remainder of the year once they go dormant again. These plants are often the earliest sprouting plants within the forest—since they have to take advantage of the sunlight before the trees grow their leaves and shade out the plants on the forest floor—and will have produced flowers, released seeds, and reentered dormancy before most other plants have begun to produce leaves.
A major advantage that many spring ephemerals share is the possession of an underground storage organ of some sort, like a bulb, corm, or rhizome. These organs allow ephemerals to store the excess quantities of sugars and carbohydrates they made during the early spring and summer in order to draw on those stores after they no longer have access to the sunlight.
