Here in Montana, we sometimes endure something called “false spring,” when winter does a head fake and offers a few days of improbable warmth in the depths of cold. Sunlight warms the ground. Snow recedes, and the air carries the scent of thaw. Then, just as everyone gathers their shorts and sunscreen, winter snaps back, freezing everything in place.
Thing is, real spring
isn’t much better around here. Warming weeks are often bookended by freezing
nights and snow squalls. This fickle weather is hard on plants. But one, in
particular, thrives in the come-and-go spring: the bitterroot. This plant, with
its three sets of double letters, is our state flower—and a stubborn one.
This time of year,
bitterroot rosettes emerge at the feet of snowbanks. Compact and clinging to
the freshly unthawed earth, they thrive in days of spare sun and unsettled air.
It’s easy to miss these little jewels in a half-winter world.
Yesterday, walking our
country road, I spotted dozens of healthy bitterroot. I’m sharing a photograph
of a pair those, along with a photograph of a bank of snow that still lingers at
the front of my house.
—Mitchell Hegman
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