Hepatica

hepatica (hĭpăt`ĭkə) or liverleaf, any plant of the genus Hepatica of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercup family), low, woodland, spring wildflowers of the north temperate zone, popular for wild gardens. The delicate blossoms, of shades of lavender, pink, and blue, may appear while there is still snow; the three-lobed leaves persist through winter. Hepaticas were formerly used as a domestic remedy. Although often called liverworts, they are unrelated to the primitive plants commonly called liverworts that are classified with the mosses in the division Bryophyta. Hepatica is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Ranunculales, family Ranunculaceae.

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Hepatica 

a genus of perennial evergreen herbaceous plants of the family Ranunculaceae. The leaves form a basal rosette and consist of three or five leathery lobes on long petioles. The solitary, regular flowers are purple or white; the perianth consists of six to ten petallike sepals. The fruit is a multiple nut, whose lobes and juicy caruncles are eaten and distributed by ants.

There are six to ten species of hepatica, distributed predominantly in the temperate belt of Eurasia and in the eastern part of North America. There are three species in the USSR: H. nobilis, which grows in hardwood forests and shrub thickets in the European USSR; H. Falconeri, which is found in Middle Asia; and H. asiatica, which grows in the southern Primor’e region. H. nobilis and H. angulosa are cultivated as ornamentals.