An Iowa Garden

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Yesterday was improbably cold and bitter, with a thin blanket of new snow in the morning, stinging sleet driven by swirling winds in the afternoon, and a high temperature barely above freezing... not the most propitious day to take the camera out to the garden to find what's in bloom. However, this little flower, Shibateranthis pinnatifida, has been out for a week, shyly and bravely just poking through the brown leaf litter. In its native land of Japan its common name is Setsubun-so, meaning literally day before spring-flower ; an apt name if ever there was one. On the ancient Japanese lunar calendar (in use until 1873, when Japan adopted our modern, solar-based Julian calendar), Setsubun was the third day of the second lunar month, and was recognized as the end of winter; the holiday was kept when the Julian calendar came in, but Setsubun was re-set as the day before solar spring and "so" means flower or plant; hence Setsubun-so became the day before spring-flower .
The delicate appearance of this little Japanese alpine is deceiving, because in fact it blooms in nature (and in our garden) just at the edge of the receding snow. The leaves seem almost an afterthought, looking far too small and frail to sustain the plant, being just a finely cut little collarette of bronze-green which wilts and disappears at the first puff of early summer's hot winds.
The genus shibateranthis was split off from eranthis, with the seven Asian species being placed in the new genus (Shibateranthis pinnatifida, stellata, siberica, keiskei, uncinata, albiflora and longistipitata), leaving the two European species in the original eranthis genus (hyemalis and cilicica... the winter aconites). In our garden we do grow S. stellata, which is just starting to bloom, and we grow both of the winter aconites, which I need to start looking for amongst the dead leaves.
Seen closely, the tiny flowers of pinnatifida are quite fascinating; the white "petals" are actually sepals, while the little yellow protuberances are in fact structurally petals. the anthers are bright metallic blue and break open to release sticky white pollen granules, as you can see on the left side of the flower above. The stigmas in the center are light grape in color.
These miniature flowers will never be used in a spring bouquet; they are not going to be a cover subject for any gardening magazine; you'll not see them featured in garden catalogs... but they do wonders for the spirit on a gray and wintry day in Iowa.



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