Spring bloomer

Windflower -Blühaspekt in a deciduous forest in Radziejowice in Poland

Snowdrop, Galanthus

Early bloomers or spring forest plants or spring geophytes are plants especially in deciduous forests that bloom and form their foliage early in the year . In spring you benefit from the light and warmth directly above the ground, which is still high before the trees "canopy". When the leaves of the trees and bushes shoot , they end their appearance above ground: They “move in”, as gardeners say. Early bloomers have special storage organs from which they draw the energy that cannot be produced at the early bloom time. The storage organs ( onions , plant tubers , rhizomes ) contain reserves in the form of reserve materials such as starch . Because so early in the spring, photosynthesis is not enough to provide enough energy for the development of flower stems. It is therefore an adaptation to the period of the deciduous forests of the temperate climate zone. There are three different types of early bloomers: geophytes , hemicryptophytes , chamaephytes .

In these perennial plants, the above-ground parts of the plant die off in summer or in winter. They survive the long and unfavorable seasons, hidden under the surface of the earth, in the form of onions, tubers, rhizomes or rhizomes that bear buds.

The early bloomers have various adaptations for wintering, e.g. B. Mucilages as antifreeze like the daffodils . Other flowers - such as those of the snowdrops , which in the strict sense do not belong to the early bloomers - have stored salts to protect themselves from particularly low temperatures. These plants adapt to the short growing season in montane locations in the early flowering period .

Plants that have adapted to dry summer locations, such as daffodils and tulips, must also be distinguished from early bloomers in the above sense . The early flowering period results from the need to produce fruit and seeds between the winter cold and the dry season in summer . Here the typical storage organ is the onion, which in turn develops special protective mechanisms. The pungent taste or even the toxicity acts as a feed protection . This is necessary because these storage organs are particularly tempting sources of food during the vegetation break. The earliest spring bloomers that can be found in German gardens are winterling and snowdrops , which start to bloom in February, followed by crocuses , two-leaved squill , reticulated iris and daffodil wild species.

The following tabular compilation of approx. 60 early flowering perennials (wild or in cultivation) gives name and illustration as well as the earliest possible beginning of flowering and can be sorted according to the individual criteria.

Knowledge Surname	name suffix	Common name	Flower color	Earliest flowering month	image
Adonis amurensis	Amur	Adonis	yellow	2
Adonis vernalis	Spring	Adonis	yellow	4th
Allium ursinum		Wild garlic	White	3
Anemone ranunculoides	Yellow	Anemone	yellow	3
Anemone nemorosa	bush	Anemone	White	3
Bellis perennis		daisy	White	3
Cardamine enneaphyllos	Whorls	Tooth root	yellow	3
Chrysosplenium alternifolium		Milkwort	yellow	3
Colchicum bulbocodium		Spring light flower	red	2
Corydalis solida	finger	Larkspur	red	3
Corydalis cava	Hollow	Larkspur	red	3
Crocus flavus	gold	crocus	yellow	2
Crocus tommasinianus	Elves	crocus	violet	2
Crocus vernus	Spring	crocus	violet	2
Cyclamen coum	Early spring	Cyclamen	red	1
Daphne mezereum	Real one	daphne	red	3
Eranthis hyemalis		Winterling	yellow	1
Erythronium dens-canis		Dog's tooth lily	red	3
Fritillaria imperialis		Imperial Crown	red	4th
Fritillaria meleagris		Checkerboard flower	red	4th
Fritillaria uva vulpis	Fox grapes	Fritillary	yellow	4th
Gagea lutea	Forest	Gold star	yellow	3
Gagea villosa	Field	Gold star	yellow	3
Galanthus elwesii	Elwes	snowdrop	White	1
Galanthus nivalis	Little one	snowdrop	White	1
Galanthus plicatus	Clusius	snowdrop	White	1
Galanthus woronowii	Voronov	snowdrop	White	1
Helleborus argutifolius	Corsican	hellebore	green	1
Helleborus foetidus	Malodorous	hellebore	green	1
Helleborus niger		Christmas rose	White	1
Helleborus orientalis	Spring	hellebore	White	2
Hepatica nobilis	Ordinary	Hepatica	violet	3
Hepatica transsilvanica	Transylvanian	Hepatica	violet	3
Hyacinthus orientalis	garden	hyacinth	violet	3
Iris pumila	dwarf	Iris	blue	3
Iris reticulata	Net sheet	Iris	blue	3
Lathraea squamaria		Scale root	red	3
Leucojum aestivum		Summer knot flower	White	4th
Leucojum vernum		Märzenbecher	White	2
Muscari armeniacum	Armenian	Grape hyacinth	blue	4th
Narcissus poeticus	poet	daffodil	White	4th
Narcissus pseudonarcissus		Daffodil	yellow	3
Paeonia daurica Ssp.mlokosewitschi	Yellow	Peony	yellow	4th
Paeonia tenuifolia	Fine-leaved	Peony	red	4th
Petasites hybridus		Butterbur	red	3
Primula elatior	Forest	Cowslip	yellow	3
Primula veris	grasslands	Cowslip	yellow	3
Primula vulgaris	Stemless	primrose	yellow	3
Pulmonaria officinalis		Lungwort	red	3
Pulsatilla alpina	Alps	Pasque flower	White	4th
Pulsatilla vulgaris	Ordinary	Pasque flower	violet	4th
Pushkinia scilloides		Pushkinie	White	3
Ranunculus ficaria		Celandine	yellow	3
Scilla bifolia	Two-leaved	Squill	blue	3
Scilla mishchenkoana	Persian	Squill	blue	3
Scilla sibirica	Siberian	Squill	blue	3
Soldanella alpina		Alpine bells	red	3
Tulipa kaufmanniana	Water lilies	tulip	yellow	3
Tulipa sylvestris	Vineyard	tulip	yellow	4th
Tulipa turkestanica	Turkestan	tulip	yellow	3
Tussilago farfara		Coltsfoot	yellow	3
Viola odorata	Scent	violet	blue	3

literature

• Åge Nicolaisen: bulbs - spring flowers . 2nd Edition. BLV, Munich 1966.
• Peter Rüther: Early bloomers - an overview of native species . Hohenwarsleben (Westarp Sciences) 136 pp., ISBN 978-3-89432-916-7

Web links

• Overview of the spring bloomers
• Spring bloomers sorted by flower color ( Memento from July 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Nicolaisen: bulbs - spring flowers BLV garden book (p. 171), BLV publishing company, Munich, 1966.
2. ↑ Christian Grunert: The great bulb book. Berlin: VEB Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag, 1990, ISBN 3 331-00193-7 .
3. ^ Fritz Koch: Paperback of the domestic spring flowers , Urania-Verlag Leipzig, Jena, Berlin 1964.