This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Native forest wildflowers called spring ephemerals burst forth into the cool spring air powered by nutrients stored in their rhizomes, bulbs or tubers the previous fall. Their leaves quickly harvest the sunlight pouring through bare treetops. Time is short.  They must grow, blossom and produce fertile seeds in a few days or weeks before the trees’ shade slows photosynthesis.  Some drop or even toss their seeds to the forest floor.  Others wrap their seeds in fruits tipped with a fatty treat (an elaiosome).  Ants can’t resist it, carrying the treats to their young underground.  Luckily, the ants discard the seed itself in their tidy compost piles, providing a perfect place for germination. So despite being here today and gone tomorrow (almost), ephemerals continue spreading their colorful scarves across the forest floor spring after glorious spring.