While I had been looking around for the perfect specimen, I stumbled upon a clump of Hepaticas. This is another wildflower that I had before now only seen in books. I had a difficult time calming myself down enough to sit still and concentrate on one drawing, let alone two. So we decided to head back home, have some lunch, and return later that afternoon with paints and a saw.

There are two common species of hepatica, blunt-lobed (Hepatica americana) and sharp-lobed (H. acutiloba). These names refer simply to a difference in the shape of the leaf lobes. (One has rounded or blunt lobes, the other has sharp or pointed lobes.) Both are small plants growing to about six inches in height. They grow in clumps out of the leaf litter in early spring, the flowers blooming before the leaves have fully unfolded. The flowers can be white, lavender, or pale blue. The three-lobed leaves are covered with a thick furry fuzz on the outside, as are the stems. The leaves are mottled brown and green when they first open, but turn solid green after the flowers fade. The specimen I have found here is the sharp-lobed hepatica bearing white flowers with just a tinge of lavender. It prefers a neutral or lime soil, whereas the blunt-lobed hepatica prefers an acid soil and its flowers are more likely to be pale blue.