Outdoor Elements
Why This Flower is Named After a Human Organ
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Early spring hikes are full of hidden gems! While out on the trail, Evie discovered some S
🌸🌿 Early spring hikes are full of hidden gems! While out on the trail, Evie discovered some Sharp-Lobed Hepatica peeking through the leaf litter. Many people only notice this plant when its delicate flowers bloom, but in this episode of Outdoor Elements, Evie shares why the leaves are actually where Hepatica gets its name — and why they’re just as fascinating as the f...
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Outdoor Elements is a local public television program presented by PBS Michiana
Outdoor Elements
Why This Flower is Named After a Human Organ
Clip | 3m 3sVideo has Closed Captions
🌸🌿 Early spring hikes are full of hidden gems! While out on the trail, Evie discovered some Sharp-Lobed Hepatica peeking through the leaf litter. Many people only notice this plant when its delicate flowers bloom, but in this episode of Outdoor Elements, Evie shares why the leaves are actually where Hepatica gets its name — and why they’re just as fascinating as the f...
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipIf you're like me, you can't wait until early spring hikes reveal beautiful spring, ephemeral wildflowers in the woods.
One of my all time favorites is flowering right now.
It's one of our earliest flowering spring wildflowers, and it's called Sharp-lobed Hepatica.
Sharp-lobed Hepatica gets its name from the really interesting leaves that are often Burgundy in color and with kind of like, darker Burgundy and green striations on the leaves.
And they're pretty leathery.
They often persist through winter, but sometimes we don't even see the leaves.
We just notice the flowers that are poking up above the leaf covering on the ground.
Hepatica is a word affiliated with the liver, and those leaves are very liver shaped, three lobes like our livers.
And many, many years ago, back in the 16th and 17th century, there was a medical philosophy known as the doctrine of signatures.
And medical practitioners of the era believed that plants that resembled different parts of the body then could be used to treat ailments related to those parts of the body.
And so back in those centuries, hepatica was used to treat a variety of liver ailments.
Of course, today we realize and understand that there is no correlation between plants that look like body parts and how to treat them, but it's still part of this plant's history.
Hepatica flowers can come in lavender, deep purple, pale pink, even white, and when it's cold, the petals are often kind of closed up.
But when the sun comes out, they open up and reveal their beautiful petals above the basal leaves that are often close to the ground.
I like to look for the fuzzy stems on the flower stalks.
Perhaps those help protect the flowers and the flower stalks from the cooler temperatures.
Because it is one of the first wildflowers that we often find in beech maple forests.
It's a beautiful plant to look for.
I hope you can find some because remember, you can find your own outdoor elements when you visit area parks and natural areas.
We'll see you soon.
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Outdoor Elements is a local public television program presented by PBS Michiana