Hepatica

A favorite wildflower of mine is Hepatica. I was able to take a few pics of these while I was hiking at Clifton Gorge near Yellow Springs, OH, recently. It is such a beautiful, delicate flower with colors of white, pink, lavender and blue. The one above with the blue shade was my favorite. I attempted to take a picture of one that was a unique candy cane color, white with swirls of pink throughout the petals. But as all newbie photographers know, sometimes the lighting, wind, etc... does not cooperate and all I got were blurry blobs of pink. The hillsides were practically alive with splashes of color made by the generous sprinkling of these beauties. It made for a very peaceful and restorative walk. You can view this flower at Holliday Park and at the Eagle's Crest Nature Preserve at Eagle Creek Park.

Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa) gets its name from the dark leathery leaves that grow up from the base of the flower and are three-lobed like a liver. "Hepatic" means like the liver in color and shape. Well, I haven't viewed any livers lately, so I will have to take their word for it. Below is a shot of the plant showing one of the leaves. Pioneers believed if a plant was shaped like a body part, it was put on earth to cure that body part. So they believed this plant was a great cure for jaundice, hepatitis and other liver ailments.