Spring Beauty

claytonia virginica, is one of the first wildflowers that bloom in the spring. normally they have just five petals, but the one i photographed had more. they can grow close to another spreading out to form a blanket of white flowers.

from mountain net: "Spring Beauty grows from edible, underground tubers that were relished by Native Americans because of their chestnut-like flavor. The genus was named in honor of John Clayton, an early American botanist who supplied the material for an eighteenth-century book on the flora of Virginia."