Spring primroses: the awakening of spring in the State Park-Monument of Landscape Art of the National Importance "Mezhyhiria"

Crocus Yellow Giant


Perennial plant 15-30 cm tall. The corm has a membranous shell. There are 4-8 leaves, rather broad, 2.5-4 mm wide, erect, ciliate. Perianth tube of the same length or slightly longer than the 1st integumentary leaf, yellow, glabrous or pubescent; segments 1.5-3.5 × 0.4-1.2 cm, obtuse to almost acute, yellow to orange-yellow, rarely striped or deep brown on the perianth tube. Stamen filaments 3-7 mm long, yellow, glabrous or dusty; anthers 0.8-1.5 mm long, yellow. Flowering period: March and April.

Scilla sibirica
Snowdrop (Scilla) is a genus of perennial bulbous herbaceous plants of the Asparagaceae family. This plant has many beautiful folk names, including: sky key, snowdrop, snowdrop (feminine), proliska (feminine), proseren, snowdrop, primrose, blue-eyed, synetka, blue snowdrop, celestial, cinquefoil, blue herb. The stem of this plant is leafless, the bulb is ovoid, 2-3 cm in diameter. The leaves are linear, extending from the base of the stem. The flowers are bisexual, regular, cyan, blue, occasionally pink, white, single or in racemes, located at the top of the stem. The fruit is a box. The flowers are placed on long, straight pedicles. The snowdrop reproduces by bulbs - children and self-sowing. The seeds are spread by forest ants. There are about 90 species of snowdrops of the genus Scilla, which are common in temperate and tropical regions of the Earth - in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America. In Ukraine, there are three species of this plant: autumn snowdrop (Scilla autumnalis), which grows in the steppes in the South of Ukraine and the Crimea; two-leaved snowdrop (Scilla bifolia), which is found in sparse ravine and floodplain forests and shrubs; and drooping snowdrop or Siberian snowdrop (Scilla sibirica), which is found in forests and on forest edges. All of them are rare species. 

Spring snowdrop (Leucojum vernum)
Next to the snowdrop, you can often find a similar-looking fellow in forest glades - the spring snowdrop. This flower is popularly called ‘spring precocious’, ‘forest daffodil’, ‘yolk’. This flower is one of the first to bloom in early spring, and it also has yellow spots on its petals. The main purpose of these spots is to show pollinators the way to the nectar. This early spring flower has been known to people since ancient times. Its image can often be found on family coats of arms and postage stamps. In the XXI century, the spring snowdrop is endangered, protected by law and listed in the Red Book of Ukraine.
The spring snowdrop belongs to the ephemeroids - it goes into summer dormancy. It is a bulbous perennial plant with broadly lanceolate, bright green, shiny leaves up to 14-16 cm long. The bulb is ovoid, 3-3.5 cm long and 2-2.5 cm wide. Peduncles up to 15-16 cm tall. Flowers are solitary or several in apical umbellate inflorescences, drooping, bell-shaped, 2.5-3 cm long and 3 cm in diameter, with a pleasant aroma. The perianth is white with six equally divided petals, and there is a yellow-green spot at the end of each petal. It blooms from the end of March. The flowering period is 25 days. The fruit is a fleshy box.

Yellow stars (Gagea lutea)
The plant owes its Ukrainian name to the external resemblance of its flower to a star. Thanks to the English botanist John Bellenden Kier Goler, the plant received its international scientific name in honour of the Dutch scientist Thomas Gagea, who was the first to describe this culture in detail in the mid-17th century.
Yellow stars (Gagea lutea), yellow garlic, goose onion) - is a perennial, naked, low (10 to 30 cm) bulbous medicinal plant that belongs to the lily family. The yellow stars consist of a single elongated ovoid bulb of a greyish-brown hue. The plant has an erect, branched stem at the top. There are no leaves between the inflorescence and the base of the stem, and the only basal leaf is flat, broadly linear, 6 to 12 mm wide, with a cap, and a drawn-out, pointed tip. The flowers of the yellow stars are regular, bisexual, and located in an umbellate inflorescence consisting of 3-7 (sometimes up to 12) flowers. The inflorescence has two opposite leaves with spidery-pubescent leaf margins at the base. The perianth of this plant is six-membered, corolla-shaped, simple, and greenish-yellow in colour. The fruits of the aster are spherical capsules; this herb blooms in March-April.
The fragile ephemeroid is an excellent early spring honey plant and has many virtues: sugar productivity is 7-10 kg/ha, and its concentration in nectar is 53.3%; the bulb contains essential oil with a significant sulphur content; a decoction of the bulbs is used to treat bronchial asthma, hepatitis, dropsy; fresh leaves and crushed bulbs are used to treat wounds and abscesses; due to the high vitamin content, all parts of the plant are eaten, adding to first courses and salads.

Anemone
A genus of plants in the Ranunculaceae family, comprising more than 60 almost cosmopolitan species, especially in temperate climates of the northern hemisphere. The scientific name of the genus comes from the Greek anemos, which means ‘wind’. This indicates the connection between the period of spring winds and the flowering of certain species of the genus. Five species are growing in Ukraine, the most common of which are the buttercup anemone (Anemone ranunculoides), which grows in deciduous and mixed forests and has yellow flowers, and the oak anemone (Anemone nemorosa), which grows in deciduous and mixed forests and has white flowers.
Anemone
A genus of plants in the Ranunculaceae family, comprising more than 60 almost cosmopolitan species, especially in temperate climates of the northern hemisphere. The scientific name of the genus comes from the Greek anemos, which means ‘wind’. This indicates the connection between the period of spring winds and the flowering of certain species of the genus. Five species are growing in Ukraine, the most common of which are the buttercup anemone (Anemone ranunculoides), which grows in deciduous and mixed forests and has yellow flowers, and the oak anemone (Anemone nemorosa), which grows in deciduous and mixed forests and has white flowers.