Twinleaf
Jeffersonia diphylla
Twinleaf is named for its leaf, a single blade split so deeply down the middle that it reads as two facing wings, blue-green and unmistakable from the moment it unfurls. Benjamin Smith Barton named the genus for Thomas Jefferson in 1792, citing his botany rather than his politics. The white flowers are lovely and famously brief, often gone in a day or two and reliably open on the one morning nobody is looking, so the plant earns its place on foliage that stays clean and substantial all summer instead. The seed capsule is worth waiting for: a green pot with a hinged lid that flips open when ripe, spilling seeds with fleshy appendages that ants carry off. It does not go dormant after flowering, unlike most of the early woodlanders, so it holds its place in a bed all season. It wants rich, moist, neutral to alkaline woodland soil and is slow to build from seed.
- Family
- Berberidaceae
- Type
- wildflower
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 0.75–1.5 ft
- Spacing
- 0.5–0.75 ft apart
- Light
- part shade
- Soil moisture
- moist
- Soil pH
- neutral, alkaline
- Bloom
- March, April, May
- Bloom colors
- white
- Wildlife value
- pollinators
- Landscape uses
- border, container
- Native states
- AL, DC, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MN, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA, WI, WV