It’s nearly impossible for me to visualize spring as I stare out into the sepia expanse of Canaan Valley in March. The ground remains frozen, the grass is brittle, and the trees are still resting in their denuded states. Yet I can always recall the feeling I get when life—finally—returns to the landscape. I remember the warmth of the sun on my face, the rich smell of thawing soil, and the excitement of seeing those first sprouts of tender, neon leaves. The transition to spring feels simultaneously endless and abrupt. It’s a rejuvenation of life, stretched out just long enough to savor every bit and just short enough that I never take it for granted.
Perhaps no organisms have mastered this explosive revival better than the spring ephemerals. As their name suggests, these plants cram their entire aboveground lifespan into just two months, rushing to produce leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds while the sunlight filters through naked treetops. They paint barren forest floors in lush, colorful mats, only to disappear underground once the temperatures rise and the canopies green.
“I love the intricate beauty of these wildflowers set in this wild, rugged terrain of West Virginia,” says Emily Grafton, a naturalist based in Vienna, West Virginia. “Exploring these deep hollows reveals one beautiful treasure after another. They’re like little gems in the forest.”
Dwarf larkspur (Delphinium tricorne) hosts towering stalks of purple stars, while the flowers of spring beauties (Claytonia virginica) showcase fine pink and purple stripes. The flowers of Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) look comically similar to inflated, upside-down pantaloons. Squirrel corn (Dicentra canadensis) features fluffy, fern-like leaves, while the mottled leaves of trout lily (Erythronium americanum) earn the plant its name. The magnificence of spring ephemerals is further emphasized when viewed from afar. Ramps (Allium tricoccum) and Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) can coat every inch of a hillside in tender greens and cornflower blooms, if only for a moment.
West Virginia’s ancient hills and hollows create an array of habitats for spring ephemerals, which typically sprout up in March and wither by late May or early June. While often small in stature, spring ephemerals have devised mighty adaptations to withstand the challenges of a thawing world. They absorb water and nutrients extremely efficiently at low soil temperatures, sometimes with the aid of mutualistic mycorrhizal fungi. Upgrades to their photosynthetic machinery allow spring ephemerals to rapidly convert intense sunlight into carbohydrates that fuel their growth, while avoiding damage to their cells.
Although their aboveground life cycle is limited to a few months, spring ephemerals have belowground structures, such as bulbs, tubers, rhizomes, and corms, that help the plants persist throughout the rest of the year. As temperatures warm and tree leaves limit the sunlight reaching the forest floor, spring ephemerals begin to senesce, transferring nutrients from their leaves into their belowground structures. This energy will eventually be used to support shoot and root growth in the autumn, winter, and the following spring.
In contrast to their aboveground, ephemeral nature, these plants are long-lived perennials. Researchers estimated that some trout lily populations are 200 to 300 years old and can be even older in undisturbed forests. This old age may be attributed to their ability to reproduce clonally though the growth and separation of their belowground structures. This form of reproduction is particularly important for spring ephemerals in North America, which often take a long time to produce flowers and seeds due to their slow growth rates. Trout lilies require eight years to mature; ramps typically take seven to ten years to grow from seed to a flowering plant.
Along with adaptations to the environment, spring ephemerals have evolved specialized relationships with insects. Most spring ephemeral plants are pollinated by native solitary bees, bumble bees, and flies. “Trillium is thought to attract flies as its pollinator because of its stinkiness,” says Kristen Wickert, a naturalist currently based in Lewisburg, West Virginia. Although not technically a spring ephemeral because it keeps its leaves throughout the summer, red trillium (Trillium erectum) is also called stinking Benjamin. “It smells like rotting fruit and flesh. It’s putrid,” says Wickert. In exchange for pollination services, the spring ephemerals provide nectar and pollen to native insects, making them a critical food source early in the season.
Ants are also critical partners that help many spring ephemerals, including trilliums, Dutchman’s breeches, squirrel corn, and trout lilies, spread their seeds throughout the forest. To entice the ants, the plants produce a special structure called an elaiosome. “It’s just a little attachment on the seed of fat and oil,” says Wickert. The ants, lured by the elaiosomes, carry the seeds back to their nests and discard the seeds in their nutrient-rich waste heaps. In this symbiotic relationship known as myrmecochory, the ants get a tasty treat and the seeds are transferred to suitable habitats, where they can germinate and avoid competition with their parent plants.
And yet, like so many other species, the lovely spring ephemerals are vulnerable to population declines due to invasive species, climate change, and deer browsing. Because spring ephemerals require ample amounts of water and nutrients, they are often limited to growing along waterways in rich forest soils. “The river and stream areas where we find some of the best spring ephemerals are some of the more biodiverse areas in the state,” says Doug Manning, a biologist at the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, Gauley River National Recreation Area, and Bluestone National Scenic River. “They are also some of the most vulnerable places to plant invasion, particularly shrubs like bush honeysuckles, multiflora rose, and privet,” he says.
Invasive plants can occupy spaces where spring ephemerals would otherwise grow and disrupt interactions between native plants and insects. For example, the West Virginia white (Pieris virginiensis) is an endangered butterfly in Appalachia that lays its eggs on cutleaf toothwort (Cardamine concatenata), a spring ephemeral. “But they get confused with the presence of garlic mustard because the plants are closely related. The adult butterfly will lay its eggs on the invasive garlic mustard, but the garlic mustard has a chemical compound that kills the caterpillars,” says Wickert, further threatening the already endangered species. “It’s only going to get worse if invasive species keep taking over the real estate that the endemic, native spring ephemerals once took up.”
Climate change is also impacting interactions between spring ephemerals and their native pollinator species by potentially driving mismatches in when they emerge. As the planet warms, many flowering species have started blooming earlier. A study conducted in West Virginia found that two spring ephemeral species, cutleaf toothwort and the yellow trout lily, have started blooming six days earlier, on average. If there are fewer pollinators out at that time, then the spring ephemerals, which already have a short growing period, may have reduced reproductive rates that can ultimately lead to population declines.
While climate change poses long-term risks, the abundant deer populations in West Virginia are already negatively impacting some spring ephemerals. “It’s tragic,” says Grafton, who describes walking along a steep slope down to a creek in Babcock State Park. “There was a velvety carpet of either squirrel corner or Dutchman’s breeches. It was amazing, but I don’t see that now. The deer don’t have anything else to eat, so they’re eating the ground cover.”
Thankfully, Grafton says, West Virginia still hosts wonderful pockets of diverse spring ephemerals and there are actions we can take to ensure they stick around in the future. She encourages everyone to be mindful of where they’re hiking to avoid trampling spring wildflowers and to think carefully about what they plant in their gardens. Invasive and ornamental plants can escape and overrun natural areas currently occupied by spring ephemerals.
Harvesting and transplanting spring ephemerals is also leading to population declines in some species, so it’s best to leave these precious plants in the ground. When I talked to Wickert, she had just planted some ramp seeds. “If you are planting them via seed, be patient. They require two years to establish and put out a leaf,” she says. “Spring ephemerals are in it for the long game.”
Their ability to persist deep in the soil for hundreds of years is precisely what permits them to burst into vibrant displays each spring that roll like waves across the ancient mountains of Appalachia. “You get to watch spring in stages,” says Manning. “It’s this unique time of year where you can be out in the woods with the sun shining and all these amazing flowers around you.” Protecting wildflowers and the habitats in which they grow preserves not only the rejuvenating feeling of spring, but also the knowledge that, in just a few fleeting months, we’ll be able to frolic among a sea of little gems.
Nikki Forrester is senior editor and designer of Highland Outdoors. She loves putting on her plantaloons and venturing into the spring woods to inspire her flowery writing.