Spring brings Prairie Pasque

There's a fenced-in pasture just over the railroad tracks on the farm-to-market road leading from our house to the highway. Every time I travel the road, I look closely at the dry brown pasture in hopes of seeing the velvety outline of the first flower of Spring – the Prairie Pasque. Its hairy stem can be easily spotted outlined in the morning sun. 

Depending on the weather, early April is the time of year that the little purple harbinger of Spring makes its appearance in western North Dakota pastures.

Commonly called a crocus, which it is not, the Prairie Pasque beats most blooming wildflowers by three or more weeks when it appears out of nowhere in early Spring. It grows close to the ground on a light green hairy stem. Its blooms range from cool white to deep purple on the outside and generally a lighter shade on the inside. There's a yellow center, a perfect complement to purple – Easter colors. That should assist you in remembering when they usually appear – around Easter.

If you want to catch the flower in full bloom, keep your eyes peeled. It comes and goes very quickly and is not a sturdy flower. It is also prone to tiny black bugs, which usually find it at its peak. I recently learned the reason for the little bugs is the flowers' warmth. The cup-shaped flower acts like a hyperbolic lens, directing the sun's warmth towards the center of the flower. It can be up to 18-degrees warmer in the center of that blossom than the temperature of the air. But those bugs are an annoyance when taking photos of these gems.

These are one of the few flowers of my youth. Peonies and dandelions were another. Growing up in a small town surrounded by small farms, we picked Pasque from the fields where we flew our handmade kites. The Pasque flowers signify that Spring has arrived, and school will end soon.

The flowers were abundant in the matted dead grass of hay fields. Beautiful to look at and photograph, they are not a good flower choice to pick for bouquets, nor are they edible. But we loved them anyway. Used by Native Americans for medicinal purposes, do not experiment with these as a herbal remedy unless you know what you are doing.

If you haven't found a field of wild Pasque near your home, you could substitute a commercial variety of crocus. Commercial crocuses are from the iris family, and the corms, or tubers can be planted alongside your tulips, iris and other early blooming perennials. They resemble the Pasque from the buttercup family and bloom in your flower bed at about the same time of year. They are also available in many colors outside of the range of purples of the wildflower.

If planted on the south side of the house, the soil will warm early in the year, and when the days lengthen, they are sure to make an appearance before nearly any other perennial. Some years, this close to the ground flower, three to four inches tall, can be found peeping through the white blanket of spring snows. It is a perfect cold-hardy plant for North Dakota. South Dakotans love it too and adopted it as their state flower.

As you drive to work this week, watch the ditches and pastures. In the early morning sun, you can see a hairy white outline indicative of the Prairie Pasque. 

"The chance to find a pasque-flower [sic] is a right as inalienable as free speech," said Aldo Leopold in "A Sand County Almanac." Slow down and take some time to admire this native species of the high plains, but no picking, please. It's vital to preserve these beauties for generations to come.

This little Pasque flower was found holding the final winter’s snow in its arms.

​A favorite sign of spring, the Prairie Pasque will soon be emerging from winter’s sleep. You can spot them easily when outlined by the early morning sun.