Spring ephemerals get their moment in the sun
Spring ephemerals get their moment in the sun
By Michele S. Byers
Take a walk in the woods this month and check out the forest floor. There in the dappled sunlight, popping up through last year’s leaves, you may spot the short-lived flowers of native perennials known as “spring ephemerals.”
Spring ephemerals are native woodland wildflowers that bloom during the brief window of time between snowmelt and tree leaf-out. As the spring sun warms the ground, these cute little plants grow quickly, flower, are pollinated and set seed.
By June, when New Jersey’s forest floors are deeply shaded by a leafy tree canopy, the blossoms will be gone and the plants hard to find.
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