Spring Ephemeral

I’m still trying to get out a serious post. In the meantime, I took quite a few pictures yesterday, not only of the birds. Many were of flowers. Here’s several photos of a lovely flower that I look forward to seeing every year. It’s called Spring Beauty or Claytonia virginica. They truly are spring ephemerals in that they bloom for a very short time and then die back to nothing. Later in the season it becomes impossible to tell where they were. They’re easy to overlook even when they’re blooming since the flowers are only about two or three centimeters in diameter. The leaves are long and narrow and blend in with the grass. Mainly the flowers are pale pink, almost white. It’s always the more brightly colored specimens which first catch my eye and then I suddenly look down and realize that they’re all over and I’ve just over looked them. They grow from a tuber. I have never eaten them myself, but they are supposed to be edible. (Never eat anything you can’t positively identify and you are certain it’s edible.)