Common names: Sharp-lobed Hepatica Binomial name: Anemone acutiloba Garden uses: flowers Foliage: Basal, three-lobed, and hairy on the underside. Dead leaves persist through winter Flowers: white to pale blue Wisconsin native range: found throughout Wisconsin in deciduous woodlands. The sharp-lobed hepatica is a spring ephemeral - a woodland plant that flowers and sets seed shortly after the snow melts in the spring. This kind of life-cycle allows the plant to capture the sun early in the season before being cast into deep shade by the emerging leaves of the deciduous forests in which it grows. Closely related to the common hepatica (Anemone americana), it can be distinguished from that species by the pointed lobes of its leaves. Hepaticas do best in full to partial shade, as long as they get sun in the springtime (i.e. grow in the shade of a tree, not on the north side of a building). They like well-drained (but not completely dry) soil conditions. (IMG) Hepatica blossoms (IMG) Hepatica flowers and newly-unfurled leaves