Hepatica in northcentral Pennsylvania, USA

[Mark W. Simonis]

We are taking proactive measures to protect and sustain this swarm of Hepatica nobilis var acuta f plena. Thank you for the encouragement!

One more picture(s) of my favorites over the last few years.

[Leena]

Wonderful finds! Thank you for showing them.

[Mark W. Simonis]

Leena, Thanks You!

I found this very small plant without flowers this year. I think it is a Hepatica nobilis var acuta, but I am not sure? What do you think?

I am already looking forward to next year!

[Starking007]

Interessant!

[Gabriela]

We are taking proactive measures to protect and sustain this swarm of Hepatica nobilis var acuta f plena. Thank you for the encouragement!

One more picture(s) of my favorites over the last few years.

Fantastic swarm of Hepatica acutiloba Mark!!!
Thanks for showing. It is good to know that such place exists and that all sort of variations are also possible for the American Hepaticas.
They are just not that frequent like in H. japonica and nobilis.

In my Ontario region, there are multipetal forms of H. acutiloba,  not in large numbers and mainly white and pink or combinations, similar with your plants. But I never found doubles or blue multipetals.

The last plant with foliage is also super interesting. A Hepatica acutiloba fo. diversiloba but with more than 5-7 lobes, which is usual.

[Mark W. Simonis]

Thank you, Gabriela, for your reply and confirmation of that unusual Hepatica! I plan to spend more time looking at the foliage in the years to come. Yes, I have stepped up my American Hepatica searches in recent years thinking that there has to be more diversity out there. I found this to be true with other species as well. I think the range of the American Hepatica is so vast and unexplored that there will be more significant discoveries to be made as long as folks take the time to look. Mark

Here are some more blues and one nice pink.

[Mark W. Simonis]

Hello! I did get back out here this fall in northcentral Pennsylvania to look at some Hepatica nobilis var acuta leaves. Mark

[Herman Mylemans]

Hello! I did get back out here this fall in northcentral Pennsylvania to look at some Hepatica nobilis var acuta leaves. Mark

Mark, the leaves are very different, thanks for showing them!

[Leena]

They are very interesting leaf shapes! Can you tell if flowers are the same in different kinds of leafs?

[Mark W. Simonis]

Hello! This is the first that I have looked much at leaf lobes, but I will be going back to see if I can catch the flowers. Also, will be spending more time in the upcoming year looking at the leaves. Mark

[Gabriela]

Hello! I did get back out here this fall in northcentral Pennsylvania to look at some Hepatica nobilis var acuta leaves. Mark

Very nice foliage of H. acutiloba Mark. Specimens with 5 lobes or 7 are relatively rare; but I never seen other types.
In my experience the flowers in specimens with more unusual leaves are usually smaller and not very particularly attractive, but of course exceptions are possible.
All 5-7 lobes H. acutiloba I've seen here in Ontario were with small, white flowers.

Sorry I posted an image in the wrong thread.

[Mark W. Simonis]

Gabriela, In your beautiful picture the fall colors really highlight the H americana! Found a H acutiloba actually flowering a couple of days ago. And a couple of days ago when I couldn't sleep rather than counting sheep, I counted Hepatica in iNaturalist. Out of 14,505 entries of H acutiloba I found only two with fully double flowers, one in Ontario near Hekkla and the other one in Ohio, USA. As expected of the 12,206 H americana entries there wasn't any with fully double flowers. Mark

[Gabriela]

Gabriela, In your beautiful picture the fall colors really highlight the H americana! Found a H acutiloba actually flowering a couple of days ago. And a couple of days ago when I couldn't sleep rather than counting sheep, I counted Hepatica in iNaturalist. Out of 14,505 entries of H acutiloba I found only two with fully double flowers, one in Ontario near Hekkla and the other one in Ohio, USA. As expected of the 12,206 H americana entries there wasn't any with fully double flowers. Mark

Thank you Mark.
Some years it also happened here to see a flower or two in Hepatica. This year has been extremely dry though, so they probably were busy just with surviving.
I am not particularly interested in double flowered Hepatica. I said it here in the forum before, I like them best in their simple, true form; color variants and leaf forms are welcomed; also the multipetal forms.
The fully double flowers of Hepatica don't really tell much to me; of course just a personal preference.

[Mark W. Simonis]

Gabriela, I am somewhat like you in regard to your preferences. And then there is the difficulty in propagation of doubles. This old guy just isn't patient enough for that. Ha! Ha! Attached find a picture of another plant with leaf variation. Mark

[Mark W. Simonis]

Hello all! Went back out here yesterday in northcentral Pennsylvania, USA to look at Hepatica nobilis var acuta leaf lobes. It appears that four lobes are very common and even five lobes aren't that rare. But more than five is very rare. I have attached a picture of three of the ones with more than five lobes that I have found here this year in the wilds. Dates found are on each picture. Also noticed that all three of these may be f minima. Yes, that is my thumb in two of the pictures to give some scale. Now all I have to do next spring is relocate these to match up their flowers with their leaves. Mark