Foothills, montane, subalpine. Woodlands. Spring.
Lower Stoner Mesa Trail, May 26, 2004.

Spring Beauty is one of the first spring wildflowers in several vegetation zones. Small white-to-pink flowers

top a 2-4 inch tall, slender, arching plant with drooping, narrow leaves. Although Spring Beauty sometimes appears in quite large numbers and is conspicuous, it more commonly occurs in small, inconspicuous patches.  Look for it after snow-melt through late spring, from low mesas and stream valleys to high mountains.

Frederick Pursh named this species in his 1814 Flora Americae Septentrionalis. "Lanceolata", "lance-like", is from the Latin and refers to the leaf shape.

Foothills, montane, subalpine. Woodlands. Spring.
Dolores River Canyon Overlook Trail, April 29, 2008.

This very young Claytonia has far more hot pink than most Claytonias one finds in the Four Corners area.

Alpine. Scree. Summer.
Madden Peak, June 23, 2004.

Wander through an alpine scree field, and you will find a number of plants in the seemingly inhospitable rock environment.  Among the most enchanting is Alpine Spring Beauty with pink buds, half inch white/pink flowers, and thick leaves which change slowly from red to green as they age and gain chlorophyll.  Claytonia megarhiza thrives in the meager soils that accumulate between alpine rocks and blooms there for several months.

In 1862 Asa Gray named this species Claytonia arctica variety megarhiza; Charles Parry renamed it Claytonia megarhiza in 1878.

"Megarhiza" is Greek for "large roots".

Alpine. Scree. Summer.
Sharkstooth Trail, June 28, 2007.

Alpine. Scree. Summer.
Madden Peak, June 23, 2004.