This Hepatica acutiloba, the sharp-lobed hepatica, I found in Fillmore Glen last April, capturing them with the Apple Iphone 14 proMax.
Hepatica acutiloba is also known as sharp-lobed hepatica, liverwort, kidneywort, pennywort, liverleaf. The perennial nature of this plant is seen here in the purplish leaves hanging below, from a previous year’s growth.
The word hepatica derives from the Greek ἡπατικός hēpatikós, from ἧπαρ hêpar ‘liver’, because its three-lobed leaf blotched leaves resemble a diseased human liver.
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Plants of genus Hepatica are native to Europe, Asia, and North America.
Europe: Albania, Austria, the Baltic states, Belarus, Bulgaria, Corsica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Yugoslavia
Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Western Siberia
Eastern Asia: North China, South Central China, East China, Japan, Korea, Manchuria, Primorsky Krai
South Asia: Pakistan, Western Himalaya
Canada: Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec
United States: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin
Plants of the genus have been introduced to Belgium.
These tufted perennials grow to 10 centimeters in height with wiry roots. Leaves usually three-lobed and untoothed. Flowers can be blue, pinkish, or white. Three sepals, small and green. Petals usually 5, can be more, without a nectary. Stamens numerous. Ovary superior; styles short with capitate stigmas. Pollination is by insects. Fruits many, one-seeded. Seeds are green when ripe. dispersed by ants.
References:
Wikipedia, “Hepatica”
“The Botanical Garden, Vol II” by Roger Phillips and Marytn Rix, Firefly Books, 2002
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 