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For Your Garden - March 2022
Native plants provide beauty as well as food and shelter for wildlife. Native species are adapted to the Illinois climate. They require little or no watering and are resistant to drought, insects and most diseases. Because they are perennials, you can welcome their presence year after year.
round-lobed hepatica (Hepatica americana)
Photo © Christopher David Benda
This plant has three lobes per leaf, and each lobe is rounded. The leaf and flower stalk are hairy. Flowers may be white, pink, lavender or blue and are composed of sepals. There is one flower per stalk. Three bracts are present below each flower. An individual plant grows four to six inches tall. Round-lobed hepatica grows in rich woods in northeastern Illinois. it blooms in March and April. The flowers close at night and when precipitation is falling. The fruit is an achene, a simple dry fruit that does not open at maturity. It contains one seed.
Classification and taxonomy are based on Mohlenbrock, Robert H. 2014. Vascular flora of Illinois: A field guide. Fourth edition. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. 536 pp.
Illinois Range
Native Plant Information
For more information about Illinois native plants, visit our Native Habitat Descriptions, Requirements, and Plant Lists page. The following publications are available from the IDNR on our publications page.
Taxonomy
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Illinois Status: uncommon, native
