When we think of beautiful spring wildflowers, our thoughts seem to automatically go to the brightly colorful ones like phlox, thistle, and azaleas. It’s easy sometimes to forget those white ones, but there are actually plenty of gorgeous white wildflowers blooming right now, too. Of course, one of our favorite ornamental flowers, the azalea, comes in an all white version and so does phlox, but there are also loads of spring flowers that only come in white. One of my favorites is white sweetclover (Melilotus albus), featured above. It’s also commonly called white melilot, honey clover, hubam clover, or bokhara clover. It’s native to most of Asia, but was brought to much of the world as a forage plant for livestock.

Another really pretty white flower with a not so pretty name is finger rot (Cnidoscolus urens). It’s actually a nettle, sometimes called bull nettle, because of it’s stiff, prickly hairs. If those hairs are touched by unsuspecting people they can cause an itchy, unpleasant rash, hence the name finger rot. It is a native to the southeastern United States, and is quite common here in the sandhills of central Florida. Even though many people don’t like having it around, for obvious reasons, I usually just let it alone. It produces very nice, white flowers that will continue to bloom throughout most of the spring and well into summer, so just don’t touch it. Pretty simple.