Winter Aconite

Here's a small swath of winter aconite, or Eranthis hyemalis, growing near the Edgeworthia I posted about yesterday.   I love this sunny yellow flower, which grows from a tuber in the spring.  Leaves and blossoms emerge at the same time in early spring and when the forest canopy becomes more dense, the plant has adapted to lose its above-ground parts and become dormant. This phenomena, in regards to plants, is called aestivation.

Eranthis is in the Ranunculaceae or buttercup family.   The leaves are peltate, which means they don't have petioles.  To me, they look like the ruffled collars you'd see on a clown.

As cheery as this plant is, keep it the hell away from your belly.  It's infamously toxic, as it was what Medea used to poison Theseus.  It evidently tastes quite bad, so you'd be unlikely to actually digest it. Er- is ancient Greek for 'early' and -anthis of course means flower, so the plant is an early spring flower. 

Edgeworthia chrysantha

No joke, last Saturday I saw this plant along Washington Avenue, approaching the USBG and I double-parked and jumped out of the car to inspect more closely.  I was pretty sure it was, for me, a new discovery. 

And indeed it was: Edgeworthia chysantha, or paperbush.  There's not much online about this plant but Dirr nails my particular experience when he writes "Makes a nifty woodland plant and is a great teaser for the visitor who knows everything."  

The plant is in the Thymelaeaceae family and is thus related to Daphne.  You can see some similarity between the flowers of Daphne and these umbelliferous inflorescences.  Edgeworthia is also, like Daphne, faintly fragrant.  I love the fuzzy, waxy quality of the flowers and the somewhat surprising discovery of a bright yellow after identifying the flowers as white from afar.    

The USBG identifies this plant as E. gardneri and other sources cite is as E. papyrifera, but the exact nomenclature is a bit muddy.  The plant is native to forests and streamlands in China and has been used for paper and medicinal purposes. The foliage (which I've yet to witness myself) is evidently broadleaved, elliptical and bluish in hue.  

Abeliophyllum distichum

Though the plant genus below is Abeliophyllum the common name is 'white forsythia.'  And indeed, even though it's not in the genus Forsythia, the two plants are related, as they are both members of the Oleaceae or olive family.  

Though you can't discern this in these photos, since the plant hasn't leafed out yet, the leaves do indeed resemble Abelia, which accounts for the genus name.  Like Forsythia, I am a bit conflicted about using this plant.  It's a welcome sight this time of year, when we're all desperate for spring, but after it's bloomed and the leaves are out, it's a bit of a sprawling mess.

The plant is becoming increasingly hard to find in its native habitat of Korea, the result of over-harvesting due to its medicinal uses.