If you are into wildflowers, the best place to find them is at the edge of a wooded area in early to mid spring. The first sightings of the year—at least in boggy places–are usually skunk cabbage, which are so smelly and unattractive, that many people don’t count them as “wildflowers”. Among the more typical “wildflowery” plants are perennial hepaticas or liverworts, and they are truly beautiful.
Growing six to eight inches tall, with daisy-like flowers, liverworts are at home among the trees and flourish just as they are beginning to leaf out. The white, pink, blue or blue-purple blooms are full of nectar for early pollinators. Gardeners familiar with spring-flowering anemones will note a resemblance in flower color and configuration, and some taxonomists even group hepaticas in the anemone genus. The low-growing leaves, which are lobed and sometimes blotched, resemble the shape of a human liver– at least in the eyes of some early observers. This gave rise to the common names, “liverwort” and “liverleaf”.
Assigning properties to plants based on physical characteristics is in keeping with the Doctrine of Signatures, which dates back to the ancient world, and was mentioned by the early Greek physician Dioscorides in the first century A.D. The theory holds that when a plant part, whether flower, leaf or root, resembles a specific body part or organ, a remedy made from the plant can be used to treat ailments of that organ. By that logic, hepatica was thought to be beneficial for liver ailments. More effective, less toxic treatments have since been found for liver complaints, but the common name stuck to the little woodland flower.
There are two species of native American hepatica, Hepatica americana, and Hepatica acutiloba. They bear similar flowers, but are distinguished by leaf shape. The americana species features rounded leaf lobes while the acutiloba leaves are pointed at the ends. Unlike other spring flowers, which are ephemeral and die back completely by summer, hepaticas stay around after the flowers fade, with the leaves turning bronze-brown in the fall.
It would be natural to assume that those daisy-like flowers mark hepatica as a member of the Compositae or daisy family. In fact, they are part of the buttercup clan, related to that other spring stalwart, hellebore, not to mention common buttercups. When the plants are happy, in relatively rich soil and semi-shaded locations, they will naturalize to form clumps.
I am nothing if not impressionable, and when I saw hepaticas in the woods last week, I immediately wanted some for the shady corners of my home garden. A little research proved that this was not as easy as I thought. Major plant vendors either did not stock hepaticas at all, or carried only seeds. In a couple of those cases, the seeds were out of stock. After some further searching, I came up with an American supplier that carries a number of varieties of American, European and Japanese hepaticas. All are similar in appearance and growth habit.
Clearly, at least a few American gardeners grow hepaticas, but the Japanese have cultivated them for centuries, treating the little plants like horticultural jewels. Japanese breeding efforts have led to improved color ranges and the development of double-flowered varieties. With the increasing number of small gardens, pollinator gardens and woodland landscapes, it seems to me that hepaticas are overdue for a moment in the horticultural sun.
If you want to be in the vanguard of the coming hepatica vogue, you can check out Far Reaches Farm at 1818 Hastings Ave. Port Townsend, WA 98368; (360) 385-5114; www.farreachesfarm.com.
And take a walk in the woods. You will come home full of spring inspiration.