Sunday, March 20, 2011

What's that plant?

These beauties come in three colors; white, purple and pink. The flowers come up in March, then die back, after which the leaves come up and stay for the rest of the year. I've given you a picture of the leaves and the flowers.

They're only about three inches high, and will be gone in a week. Extra points if you can name the variety!! Answer below the fold... 

These are hepatica.    Named for the liver shaped leaves.    According to the Doctrine of Signatures, which was a theory that God put plants on the earth to help us and gave hints as to what they were good for in their shapes, this one was thought to be good for the liver.     It's not. 



Variety:  Sharp Lobed   hepatica acutiloba.

Latin lesson:   acuti = sharp;  loba = lobe.


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