Spring Beauty- Claytonia virginica

Features: This pink and white striped edible ephemeral dwells happily in moist woodland thickets where its spreading clusters — which appear light pink from a distance — provide an early spring nutrition for a wide variety of bees including honey, bumble, mason, cuckoo and Andrenid.

Spring Beauty was known as "miners’ lettuce" when it was dug up and eaten during the California gold rush to help prevent scurvy. Native people ate the roasted or boiled tubers as a tasty treat.

Light: Shade to sun--such as found under a deciduous tree before it leafs out.

Soil: Medium to wet

Height:  6 inches

Blooms: April to June

See more information and photos at: Lake Forest College and Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

An amazing list of all the pollinators the who like it.

Images from 1. Illinois Wildflowers, 2. Wikimedia