Smallflower Woodland Star: The 20th Flower of Spring!

[best appreciated at full size against black]

I'm cheating just a bit with this picture! I took this image at the top of the Upper Table Rock, but I found this beautiful flower popping up all around our granite valley about a week ago! I've taken a bunch of pictures but I'm not happy with them, so I thought it would be ok to post this one instead! :) What's really cool is that I've never seen this species on our property before! We have a different one, called the San Francisco Woodland Star, that shows its pretty face in May. It's much taller (these stand only about 5-8" tall), the flower is larger with a blossom shaped more like a snowflake then these tendril-like petals.

There are about a dozen species of Woodland Stars and they can be found all over the Western United States. Considered to be an herb, these flowers grow from rhizomes (bulblets) and can be found both in meadows and in deep forests. If you would like more information about these lovely little flowers, I found a nice source with lots of pictures here: Lithophragma: Woodland Stars
Wiki has a bit of information here: Smallflower Woodland Star

This image was taken in March, 2012.