Five Lobed Forest Floor

Tall buttercup ranunculus acris leaves to 4 wide palmately divided into 5 or 7 unstalked narrow segments per wildflowers of the southern mountains.

Five lobed forest floor.

Posted in flowers trees tagged 3 lobed leaves 5 petal flowers alternating spiral of leaves axillary flower spikes cream flowers deciduous forest floor forest margins heart shaped leaves inedible fruit long stems pithy stems poisonous berries red berries regionally perennial shade loving simple leaves smooth leaf margins. The name hepatica comes from the greek word for liver medieval doctors thought that hepatica leaves looked like the body. This common forest plant is also called trail plant because the leaves can be flipped over their silvery fuzzy undersides marking the way. Leaves have 3 5 fine toothed lobes and flowers are white in clusters of 2 9.

The flowers rarely rise more than 6 inches from the woodland floor. Newly emerged hepaticas have fuzzy three lobed leaves and fuzzy stems with tiny blossoms in shades of magenta purple lavender blue or palest pink. In fact those deep indentations frequently go almost to the center of the leaf which can be clearly seen in the second image above. Leaves 5 7 wide palmately veined and deeply lobed per wildflowers of tennessee the ohio valley and the southern appalachians.

Blunt lobed hepatica anemone americana clusters of white pink or purple flowers bloom amid leathery three lobed leaves. And the mayapple leaf looks more deeply lobed. The forest floor is covered in a layer of decomposition known as detritus. The insects carry the seeds to their nests helping spread bloodroot across the forest floor.

Looking at the underside of the mayapple leaf we can see the strong veins along with the point of attachment of the leaf to the stalk. Hepaticas are one of the first flowers to appear in the woodlands flowering as early as march.