Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery
Whitlow-grass
This is one of the earliest wildflowers to bloom each spring in the Shenandoah Valley.
Although the flowers are tiny, Whitlow-grass stands out en masse against the desiccated browns and faded greens of last season's foliage.
Brought to North America from Great Britain by the first settlers, this flowering herb was highly valued as a source for an important herbal medicine.
As far back as the 16th century, a popular British herbal pharmacopoeia advised the application of an infusion from this herb to "imposthumes in the joints, and under the nails, which they call Whitlows, Felons, Andicorns and Nail-wheals."
(An alternative treatment for whitlows or felons was the flowering herb, Woody Nightshade, another immigrant brought to North America by the colonists.)
So if you are bothered by the "heartbreak" of whitlows, etc., you might want to boil down some Draba verna or Woody Nightshade and see if it helps. (Just kidding!)
This plant is not a
grass (Graminaceae);
it is a member of the Mustard family
(Brassicaceae), along with some other early bloomers:
Hairy Bittercress, Yellowrocket,
and
Shepherd's Purse.
The
botanical prefix Draba is derived from the Greek for sharp or acrid,
alluding to the
bitter taste of this and other plants in this family. The suffix verna
simply means "Spring."
Whitlow-grass (right) appears in mid-March in the Shenandoah Valley, at about the same time as Shepherd's Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) (left), which also sports tiny white flowers. Judging by the flowers alone one might mistake one for the other.
A closer look—considering!—shows us that each plant has quite distinctive seed pods:
Whitlow-grass (right) encapsulates its seeds in pods that, to me, look like deflated American football bladders.
Shepherd's Purse (left) seed pods are also flat, but their "purse" shape, sets them apart from all the other early bloomers.
Although, as noted, this is one of the first of the meadow flowers to show forth each year, it is, among the other members of the early-blooming Mustard family, one of the first to go out of bloom.
The flowers last only a couple of days; before these blooms are spent they are being displaced by seed pods. (See left pod.)
Go to the Main Directory to consider more lilies of the field.