Spring Beauty, Claytonia virginica, is a small, easily overlooked, spring plant that is a surprisingly useful survival food if you are willing to dig for it. Medicinally, it has been used as a contraceptive and pediatric anti convulsive remedy.

Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry!

Spring Beauty Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software.Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Brill, Steve. Wild Edibles Plus. Computer Software. WinterRoot LLC. Version 1.5. 2012. Web. Feb. 15, 2014.

Herrick, James William. Iroquois Medical Botany. Ph.D. Thesis, New York: State University of New York, Albany 1977. Print. pg. 91, 143

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany, Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 167

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 270-271

Peterson, Lee Allen. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants; Eastern and Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. Print. pg. 32-33, 104-105

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.