Flower:

Two to 10 stalked flowers, occasionally more, in a raceme at the top of the stem that elongates by several inches as the plant matures. Each flower is up to ½ inch (8 to 12 mm) across with 5 pale pink to white petals with darker pink veins and a spot of yellow at the base, and 5 pink-tipped stamens.

Cupping the flower is a pair of egg-shaped sepals shorter than the petals. The flowers close up at night and on cloudy days. Closed flowers and buds nod down and become erect when the flower opens.

Leaves and stem:

A single pair of oppositely attached leaves is about midway up the stem; a few similar basal leaves may also be present. Leaves are 1 to 3 inches (3 to 8 cm) long and up to 1 inch wide, lance-elliptic to nearly diamond-shaped, toothless, hairless, tapering to a blunt or pointed tip and tapering at the base to a stalk that is longer or shorter than the blade. Stems are erect or prostrate from the base before rising (decumbent) and hairless. One or more stems may arise from globular tubers.

Fruit:

Fruit is a round, 3-sectioned capsule containing several smooth, shiny seeds 2 to 4 mm long. The seeds have a coating that attracts ants, which disperse the seeds.

Notes:

Carolina Spring Beauty is a species of rich, hardwood and mixed forests and reaches the eastern edge of its range in Minnesota. It was once considered somewhat rare and was listed as a Special Concern species in 1984, but subsequent biological surveys discovered numerous sites in the Arrowhead region of the state, most within 30 miles of Lake Superior's north shore, so it was delisted in 2013. It is very similar to the related Virginia Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica), which has longer, narrower leaves and is much more common. Also, their ranges barely overlap, with Virginia Spring Beauty absent from most of the North Shore, but extending into central Minnesota and south from Itasca County to the Iowa border.