Epimedium in flower

Epimedium sp.

Epimedium · Brooklyn Botanic Garden · 2 April 2026

Epimedium, the spurred pink-and-yellow flowers dangling on wiry stems above foliage that will hold its bronze long after the blooms have gone, and easy to miss without crouching to its level. The spurs hold the nectar, and the flowers are pollinated by early bees hanging underneath. Barrenwort is the old English name, from a mediaeval belief about what it did to women who ate it - a belief the Chinese, who call the same plant horny goat weed, hold in exactly the opposite direction.