PORTULACACEAE PURSLANE FAMILY 
SPRING BEAUTY 
Claytonia virginica L. 
The Spring Beauty is a dainty maiden commonly and usually 
abundantly found in moist woods from Nova Scotia to Sas- 
katchewan and south to Georgia and Texas. Blooming in March, 
April and May, she 
appears indifferent to 
cold winds and frosty 
nights, but nevertheless 
she loves the sun and re- 
fuses to open her flowers 
if it is not shining. She 
faces the sun as it rises 
and gradually turns her 
flowers so as still to face it as it sets. 
Should it disappear behind a cloud 
she immediately sulks and closes her 
flowers until it reappears. Or, if her 
flowers are picked, they close. 
The rather weak stem, light 
green often stained with red, is 6-12 
inches long. It rises from a deep 
perennial tuber and bears 2 opposite, 
somewhat fleshy leaves and often 1 
or more slightly longer basal leaves. 
The flowers are borne in a some- 
what one-sided loose terminal raceme that becomes 3-5 inches 
long. They have 2 green sepals and § petals, white or pink with 
darker pink veins. The stamens are white with pink anthers and 
are attached to the bases of the petals. They mature before the 
pistil and after they have discharged their pollen bend outward 
toward the petals; then the 3 stigmas become ready to receive 
pollen from some other flower. The fruit is a dry capsule con- 
taining 3-6 seeds. 
The Broad-leaved Spring Beauty, Claytonia caroliniana Michx., 
is much like the first species in appearance, growth habits and range, 
except that the flowers are smaller and fewer and the leaves are 
spatulate-oblong or oval-lanceolate and about half as long. Some- 
times the plant is more nearly erect. It is a rarity in Illinois. 
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