tinyflowers_vista, photo by CreateWithKim

Wikipedia’s entry for the season of Spring says that the  vernal equinox, the point when the earth is straight on its axis and the sun passes directly over the equator. That put the official start of spring at 1:14 AM EST this morning. As the northern hemisphere tilts sunward, temperatures begin to warm and all kinds of good stuff starts growing and popping. A few of my personal favorites are daffodils, crocuses and yes, spring beauties. Yours?

According to the University of Michigan Herbarium, Michigan is home to two native species of Claytonia: Claytonia caroliniana and Claytonia virginica:

The two native species of Claytonia only rarely grow side by side in the same forests in Michigan. When they do, C. virginica reaches the peak of its flowering later by at most a few days than C. caroliniana. The vegetative parts of both turn yellowish after a short flowering and fruiting season in the spring, and soon the plants are no longer seen above ground in forests which may have been carpeted with them a month previously. Both native species are extremely variable in leaf shape and size as well as in other characters, such as the aberrant presence of extra leaves on the stem. The petals are usually pale pink with deeper colored veins, but the ground color ranges from white to very deep pink; the corolla may be as much as 27 mm broad.

The photo above looks like virginica, but Kim shot this on the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and the Herbarium doesn’t list Alger as one of the counties it is found in.

Check this photo out bigger and in her Mostly Wildflowers slideshow.