Claytonia virginica

I have enjoyed seeing spring beauties since my early childhood in the 1950's in central Pennsylvania. On Sunday, April 12 2020 my wife and I were walking on a path through an amazing stand of them in profuse bloom in Readington Township of Hunterdon County, NJ. I glanced down and saw a yellow one! I had my camera set up for macro work on spring beauties so I took a number of photos. I have been back since and now find four plants in about a 8 inch diameter circle. In hours more of looking, these are all I have seen among the tens of thousands of the usual white and pink C. virginica flowers. I identified these yellow flowers with pink veins and pink stamens as Claytonia virginica var. lutea, which is occasionally found in Bucks and Chester Counties PA and in NE Maryland. Note Bucks County PA is not many miles as the crow or other bird flies from Bucks County PA. The habitat is as typical for C. virginica and not the very moist conditions reported for the hammondiae variants found in a limited area in northern NJ. Several other members of the New Jersey Native Plant Society have also seen and photographed this unexpected for New Jersey observed occurrence.

Posted on 26 de abril de 2020, 06:31 PM by tomarmstrong