Hepatica

Did you know

• Hepatica is one of the very first wildflowers to bloom in northern forests — sometimes pushing through the last patches of melting snow.
• The name comes from the Greek hepar (liver) because the three-lobed leaves were thought to resemble a human liver — making it a 'doctrine of signatures' liver remedy.
• The leaves are evergreen and persist all winter under the snow, ready to photosynthesize the moment spring arrives.
• In Japan, hepatica (called 'yukiwariso', or snow-breaker) is the subject of an obsessive collector's hobby — rare double and bicolor forms can sell for hundreds of dollars per plant.
• The flowers actually have no true petals — what look like petals are colored sepals that open in sunshine and close at night.

Color meanings

Uses

• Woodland gardens
• Rock gardens
• Spring ephemerals
• Collector plants