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Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Common
Name

Scientific
Name

Plant
Family

Garden
Location

Prime
Season
Sharp-lobed Hepatica and Round-lobed Hepatica
Hepatica nobilis Schreb. var. acuta (Pursh) Steyerm. and Hepatica nobilis Schreb. var. obtusa (Pursh) Steyerm.
Buttercup (Ranunculaceae)
Woodland
Early Spring
Other names and notes
"Sharp-lobed" refers to the leaves with 3 deep lobes which are pointed on the ends of the lobes, as opposed to the "Round-lobed Hepatica" where the ends are more rounded. The leaves are deeply lobed on both types. Flowers can have 6 to 12 petal like sepals (6 is fairly common) and be up to one inch wide, on stems 4 -8" high. The color can range from pure white to a pinkish or bluish blush. The leaves from the prior year carryover and will be visible at the base of the plant as new leaves do not form until flowering is over. See Eloise Butler's notes below for more characteristics. This ephemeral of early spring can be found solitary or in large groups on Hepatica Hill in the Woodland Garden on the west path. Botanical Note: There is some difference in the botanical name for these plants depending on the reference source as these plants have been undergoing a botanical reclassification. USDA, which is an early adopter of new classifications currently lists the scientific names given above. The Buttercup family was formerly "Crowfoot." Earlier species names going back to Eloise Butler's times were H. acutiloba for the Sharp-lobed and H. triloba for the round-leaved.
Hepatica Sharp-lobed
Hepatica Sharp-lobed
Above and below: You see the leaves of Sharp-lobed Hepatica - Hepatica nobilis Schreb. var. acuta (Pursh) Steyerm.
Sharp-libed Hepatica Sharp-lobed Hepatica
Hepatica
Hepatica Sharp-lobed
Flower color can range from pure white to a pinkish or bluish blush. Above - an example with a pinkish tinge, below - a blue flower.
 Below: Examples of Round-lobed Hepatica -Hepatica nobilis Schreb. var. obtusa (Pursh) Steyerm.
Blue Sharp-lobed Hepatica
Round-lobed Hepaticaa
 
Sharp-lobed Hepaticas
Below: Note the old leaves from the prior year which have overwintered. New leaves will form after flowering.
Sharo-lobed Hepatica
 

Notes: Eloise Butler's records show that she obtained plants of Sharp-lobed Hepatica as early as 1907 from the "Government Reservation" (Ft. Snelling area), again in 1908, 1910, and from the river bank near the Catholic Seminary in June 1911; and also on Oct. 2, 1917 and on several other occasions from the Fort Snelling Reservation area. She also obtained plants from Groveland Park in St. Paul in April 1913 and other various years. Round-lobed was perhaps first planted in 1912 when on June 28 she records planting two H. triloba from Osceola WI. On Sept. 13, 1913 she reports planting some from Pine Coulee near St. Paul. Martha Crone set in additional plants in 1934, '35 and '36. Sharp-lobed Hepatica is native to most counties in the SE quadrant of Minnesota and up through the north metro counties. Round-lobed Hepatica is found primarily in the northern 1/2 of the state and on the east side of the state, down as far as the metro area, but not in Hennepin, Carver or Scott counties. Also SE along the Mississippi River.

Eloise Butler wrote the following about the Hepatica: "The large Crowfoot [Buttercup] family is without strongly marked characters. Its plants have usually an acrid taste; the leaves are generally more or less cut or divided; the corolla is often wanting, and, when this is the case, the calyx is colored like a corolla; the stamens are numerous; the pistils vary in number from one to several; and all the parts of the flower are distinct or unconnected.

All these points may be verified in the hepatica, or liverleaf, now in bloom along the river banks. It seems somewhat incongruous to associate a name so musical and a flower so beautiful with anything so prosaic as the liver. Yet hepatica is “liver” in Greek, and some herbalist, long ago, made the comparison, when he saw the three-lobed leaf. The leaves endure through the winter and their rich tints of bonze and purple garnish the tuft of lovely flowers varying through all shades of blue and lilac to white. The lighter tones are found in the older and more exposed flowers.,

Just under the flower, and separated from it by a very short stem, are three green leaves or bracts, as leaves on flower stems are technically named - which exactly imitate a calyx, thus fooling the unwary. When the flowers go to seed, new leaves appear. Several plants get their flower work done early, before they are shaded by the leaves, which unfold later to prepare the food for the next year’s flowers and seeds.

The hepatica is closely allied to the anemones. Two species are found in Minnesota - one with sharp-lobed and one with round-lobed leaves. The sharp-lobed species only, is indigenous to Minneapolis; but both have been planted in the wild garden in Glenwood Park." (Published in the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune April 30, 1911 - Read full article)

Poem: Hepatica by Dora Read Goodale, American (1866 - 1915)

  
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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.  
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