Spring Beauty
Spring Beauty, any one of a genus of about 20 species of early-blooming wildflowers found chiefly in eastern Siberia and North America. These plants are low-growing perennial herbs found in meadows and damp forests. They grow from bulblike underground stems called corms. The corm sends up a stem, which bears a pair of narrow leaves that taper at both ends. Just above the leaves is a loose cluster of snowy flowers. The flowers have five petals and are either white with pink veins or pink with reddish veins. The fruit is a capsule.
The common species of spring beauty grows from about 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 cm) in height. Its flowers are pink or white, striped with dark pink. It is found chiefly in the central and eastern parts of Canada and the United States.
Spring beauties make up the genus Claytonia of the purslane family, Portulacaceae. The common spring beauty is C. virginica.
Spring beauties are wildflowers with a loose cluster of snowy flowers.