spring beauty

plural spring beauties · alternative springbeauty

1. Any of various species of flowering plant of the genus Claytonia, primarily native to the Americas and northeastern Asia.

   On the lane below, more orangetips nectared on spring beauties and violets.

   2010, Robert Michael Pyle, Mariposa Road: The First Butterfly Big Year, page 123

2. obsoleteA small American butterfly, the early hairstreak (Erora laeta), which appears in spring. The hind wings of the male are brown, bordered with deep blue; those of the female are mostly blue.