What Are Spring Ephemerals?

In early spring, the understory of this deciduous woodland is bright with the flowers of false rue anemone (Enemion biternatum) and other spring ephemerals.

Spring ephemerals are herbaceous (non-woody) plants that emerge, flower, set seed and die back in spring. Many are woodland plants that take advantage of the brighter sunlight and more abundant moisture early in the season, before trees are fully leafed out.

These plants are an important source of nectar and pollen for insects that also emerge in early spring. The insects, in turn, are important pollinators for these plants. Ephemerals depend on them to fertilize their flowers so they can develop seeds. 

Because spring can be fickle, though, some ephemerals can also self-pollinate. If it's too cold for insects to fly, for example, several species can fertilize themselves. The resulting seeds carry the same genes as their parent, so the plants that grow from them are clones of that parent.

Vegetative reproduction also helps the plants spread. The false rue anemone pictured above, for example, produces not only seeds but also tuberous roots that can grow new plants. The large colony in the photograph is largely created in this way.

Most if not all spring ephemerals are perennials. After the plants flower and release seeds, the leaves of true ephemerals die back to bulbs, rhizomes, or other underground parts that store energy for next spring's growth. Some early-flowering plants keep their leaves for much of the growing season. Although these plants aren't true ephemerals, they are often included in that group.

Two Common Ephemerals

Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

Dutchman's breeches flower in April or May in the understory of deciduous forests. True to its name, its flowers resemble breeches (or britches) hanging upside down on a clothesline. 

Left to right: Dutchman's breeches flowering in early April; seed capsules ripening in mid-May; leaves gone by late May, leaving only light red tuber-like structures that store energy for next season's growth. 

The flowers are pollinated primarily by bumblebees and honey bees (1), but they can self-pollinate if the bees are absent. Seeds produced by self-fertilization may not be viable, however, and some consider the plants to be obligate out-crossers, meaning they form viable seeds only by out-crossing (2). After flowering, the plants develop elongated capsules containing dark, roundish seeds that are dropped from the capsules and distributed by ants (3). (See also Antsy Plants, a post about seed dispersal by ants.)

After flowering and seed formation, the leaves of Dutchman's breeches quickly decline. By late spring  only small, reddish bulbs or tubers remain. These storage organs are dormant until fall, when they develop leaf primordia (embryonic leaves) and flower buds. The primordia and buds then are dormant until spring, when they give rise to leaves and flowers (4). 

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

Another early spring bloomer, bloodroot is named for the red sap that fills its roots, flower stalks and leaf stalks. It emerges a little earlier than Dutchman's breeches, but the two overlap in their flowering time. Bloodroot is pollinated primarily by mining bees, but also by cuckoo bees, bee flies and sweat bees (5). 

Left to right: Bloodroot flowering in mid-April; elongated capsules maturing in mid-May; brown seeds with white elaiosomes in early June. 

Initially, bloodroot leaves are wrapped around flower stalks like cloaks, but eventually they unfurl, flatten and expand. Unlike Dutchman's breeches, bloodroot leaves persist until late summer before they die back..

In early to mid summer, bloodroot flowers are replaced by elongated capsules full of ant-dispersed seeds. Like Dutchman's breeches, bloodroot seeds have attached elaiosomes (eh-LAY-oh-sohms, literally "fat bodies"), They look like tiny worms, but these plant tissues are full of protein and fat that entice ants to carry the seeds to their nest, detach the elaiosomes to feed to their larvae and leave the seeds to germinate in a presumably safer place. 

Where to Find Spring Ephemerals

Wherever there are native deciduous forests, there should be spring ephemerals. Visit Scientific and Natural Areas and state and regional parks, such as Nerstrand Big Woods State Park in southeast Minnesota, Elm Creek Park Reserve in Maple Grove, or Mille Lacs Kathio State Park near Onamia. 

White trout lily (Erythronium albidum) flowering near Mille Lacs Kathio State Park in late April.

There are many more places to enjoy spring ephemerals. To find them, visit iNaturalist and look up the species described above (or others), or use the Minnesota Natural Resource Atlas. To use the atlas, open the Mapping Tool, choose Add Layers from the Options menu box, and in the Biota category choose Native Plant Communities -- Parks & Trails. Zoom in and look for areas of Mesic Hardwood Forest System.

Wisconsin and Iowa are also good places to look for spring ephemerals. A quick search finds that, in Wisconsin, the Northwoods Wildlife Center near Minocqua and Rib Mountain State Park near Rib Mountain are full of spring ephemerals. The Iowa DNR has a webpage dedicated to Woodland Wildflowers & Reports. The listed sites are from 2025, but the same should be true for 2026. 

References

1. The pollination ecology of Dicentra cucullaria. Lazarus Walter Macior, American Journal of Botany, Vol. 57, No. 1. 1970. 

2. Flowering ecology of some spring woodland herbs. Douglas W. Schemske and others. Ecology, Vol. 59, No. 2. 1978.

3. Myrmecochory: How Ants Shape Plant Communities. Julie Michaelson, Xerces Society. 2024. 

4. Dicentra cucullaria. Flora of North America, Vol. 3. Website accessed 2-17-26.

5. Pollinators of Native Plants: Attract, Observe and Identify Pollinators and Beneficial Insects with Native Plants. Heather Holm. Pollination Press, LLC. 2014. Available here and at some libraries.

Plant Profile: Sharp-lobed Hepatica

Sharp-lobed hepatica (Anemone acutiloba) flowering in late April 2021 in southeast Minnesota.

 
Sharp-lobed hepatica, also called liverwort or liver leaf from the shape of its leaves, is a native woodland perennial that flowers before the canopy leafs out. As for other woodland wildflowers, this timing takes advantage of the brighter light and more abundant moisture on the forest floor in early spring.

Depending on the year, hepatica begins flowering in March or April and continues for about a month. Its leaves persist through winter and resume photosynthesis in spring. Around the time hepatica stops flowering, new leaves emerge and last year's leaves die. New leaves are covered with long hairs that help protect them from cold spells. The hairs are lost as the leaves age.

Left: Last year's leaves persist through winter, giving hepatica a head start on photosynthesis when spring arrives.

Right: New leaves emerge when hepatica nears the end of its flowering period. 

Hepatica is in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae (ra-nun-cue-LAY-cee-ee). Typical of that family, the center of each flower is dome-shaped and bears many simple pistils and numerous stamens. Pistils are the seed-producing parts of a flower; simple pistils are composed of a single carpel, which evolved long ago from a seed-bearing leaf. Stamens are the pollen-producing parts of a flower.

Hepatica and several other members of the Ranunculaceae have no petals. Instead, their flowers have petal-like sepals above three green bracts. The flowers have pollen but no nectar and are an early-season source of food for several kinds of bees.

The color of sepals ranges from deep to light purple to white. Left: The profusion of white stamens and yellow pistils in the center of the flower is typical of plants in the buttercup family. Right: A mining bee (Andrena species) benefits from this early source of pollen.

Pollinated flowers eventually form achenes (ah-KEENs), small, dry, indehiscent (non-splitting) fruits that bear just one seed. (Like in-the-shell sunflower seeds.) Attached to the achenes are tiny bodies of fat called elaiosomes (eh-LY-oh-somes). These nutritious packets attract ants, which collect the achenes and bring them back to their nest. There, they eat the elaiosomes and leave the achenes in a presumably safe place for their seeds to germinate. (For more information about ant dispersal, see Antsy Plants.)

Hepatica also reproduces by rhizomes, underground stems that grow from a parent plant to produce genetically identical offspring – clones, in other words. As explained in an earlier post (What is a rhizome?), vegetative reproduction is faster and less expensive in terms of energy, but it sacrifices genetic variability among the offspring. That variability can be an asset to a population if it's faced with a changed environment, because more genetic variety offers greater potential adaptability. 

Range of sharp-lobed hepatica (left) and round-lobed hepatica (right) in the Minnesota region. Maps from USDA Plants Database (1).  

 A look-alike, round-lobed hepatica (Anemone americana), also grows in Minnesota. As its name suggests, its leaves have rounded instead of pointed lobes. Both species are found throughout the eastern half of the lower 48 states and adjacent provinces of Canada.

 

Cited References

1. Natural Resources Conservation Service. PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture. Accessed April 14, 2025, from https://plants.usda.gov.

More Information

Minnesota Wildflowers

The Friends of the Wildflower Garden, Inc. Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden.

Antsy Plants

From left: Wild Ginger, Nodding Trillium, and Bloodroot in early spring. 

Wild Ginger, Trillium and Bloodroot are done flowering, but that's not the end of their efforts. Now they must disseminate their seeds, and each has arrived at the same, six-legged solution to accomplish that task: Ants.

Myrmecochory (often pronounced MUR-mecco cor-ee), the dispersal of seeds by ants, is a convenient invention. Ants are found all over the world, from the tropics to the Arctic, so they are a ready resource. Similarly, plants that employ ants for seed dispersal live in diverse habitats, including the tropical rainforests of Latin America, the dry shrub communities of South Africa and Australia, and the eastern deciduous forests of Europe and the U.S. (1). Myrmecochory is thought to have developed independently more than 100 times, with more than 11,000 species of plants relying on these insects to spread their seeds (2).

That nature converged on the same solution in different, and distant, plants suggests that it works. Like any method of seed dispersal, though, myrmecochory has a cost. It demands adaptations, and in one group of ant-dispersed plants, that adaptation is in the form of a bribe.

To lure ants, myrmecochores attach small, fatty bodies called elaiosomes (e-lay-o-somes) to their seeds or fruits. Depending on the species, these mini nutritional packets are clear, white, brown, or other colors and shaped like worms, flags or amorphous dollops. Some may emit an odor like rotting insect carcasses, a trick to attract ants to take the seeds back to their nest, remove and feed the elaiosomes to the colony, and leave the seeds to germinate (1).

From left: Wild Ginger, Nodding Trillium, and Bloodroot seeds with their elaiosomes.

Both plants and ants are thought to benefit from this relationship. Plants benefit by reducing competition for light and nutrients between parent plants and their offspring. Moving seeds away from the parent plant also lessens the risk of local extinction: If one part of a population dies, another, more distant, part may survive. Another potential benefit is reduced seed predation. Perhaps better than any other animal, ants can disperse a cache of seeds meters away from the parent before mice, birds or other seed eaters find them.

One more potential benefit is improved seed germination. Seeds discarded in or near ant nests may end up in refuse piles, nutrient-rich microenvironments that can aid germination and seedling growth. The medium in ant nests may also retain more water or be better aerated, another potential aid to germination and growth. 

Ants benefit from myrmecochory, too, and it's likely they're adapted to the interaction. Not all species of ants forage for seeds that have elaiosomes, but those that do may have some yet-unknown characteristics that lead them to that behavior. Widespread though it is, this mutually beneficial relationship still has some secrets to share.

Myrmecochores of Minnesota

The ant-dispersed plants in this region tend to be early-blooming herbs of deciduous forests. Here are a few, based on personal observation or mention in references. 

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

Nodding Trillium (Trillium cernuum)

Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)

Yellow Violet (Viola pubescens)

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)

White Trout Lily (Erythronium albidum)

References

(1)    Handel, S.N., and Beattie, A.J. (1990). Seed dispersal by ants. Scientific American 263 (2): 76-83B.

(2)    Lengyel, S., Gove, A.D., Latimer, A. M., et al. (2010). Convergent evolution of seed dispersal by ants, and phylogeny and biogeography in flowering plants: A global survey. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 12: 43-55.