Wednesday, March 20, 2019

The First Hepatica March 18 2019


We visited Hepatica Hill in Allegan County on Monday, March 18 2019.
It was 39 degrees, the ground was snow covered in places.
This south facing hill along the Kalamazoo River was just plain brown. 

We saw green and purple hepatica leaves from last spring, and we found a few new tiny buds.  We took our time walking here, looking closely for an early glimpse of spring...

It was a nice enough day, cool with sunshine and blue sky.  We are just too early to find this favorite spring ephemeral blooming, we weren't expecting anything to be blooming yet.

Then Marie calls out, hmm, what did she see?  She had found it!  The one and only Round Lobed Hepatica blooming on this day!  It was nestled in a bed of green moss, so perfect!  Unbelievable!   
Thanks again to Mark Cassino for sharing this special hill with us.


     Kalamazoo River

We also saw....
 

 
We stopped at Happy Boots to take a peek at Skunk Cabbage.
 
   Happy Boots, Happy Spring

Next time a different kind of adventure from our trip to Moab, Utah!

4 comments:

Allen Norcross said...

I've seen exactly two hepatica blossoms in my life. They grow here but they're extremely hard to find.
Your skunk cabbages are ahead of ours!
Happy spring!

Dave said...

Yay!! spring is here finally. I have a very similar hepatica hill facing the river that I go to. Won’t be long before I head there.

Plants Amaze Me said...

Hepatica is a favorite of mine. As a kid we called them Mayflowers, and they grew all over the lawn and in the woods. Now I live three miles from where I grew up but in our woods here, there are no hepatica except for the ones I have planted. I have always wondered why that is.
Skunk Cabbage is just getting going here. The lone hepatica blooming was a surprise!
Happy Spring to you!

Plants Amaze Me said...

Yes, Spring. The one hepatica blooming was way ahead of its time. Last year we went to Hepatica Hill on April 20 2018, and we saw lots of blooming hepatica that day. So we have time I think before those hepatica really get blooming. They are a favorite for sure.
Happy Spring!