"Bloodroot" perennial, herbaceous flowering plant native to eastern North America from Nova Scotia, Canada. Bloodroot stores sap in an orange colored rhizome. The plant was used as a dye and for an herbal remedy by the native population. Plants are found growing in moist to dry woods and thickets, often on flood pla...ins and near shores or streams on slopes. The United States FDA has approved the inclusion of sanguinarine in toothpastes as an antibacterial or anti-plaque agent.
No, let me tell you a story .... Bloodroot was common to my mother's home, St. Bruno, just east of Montreal. Upon moving to the U.S. she was always open eyed to finding this charm flower again. Sort of a like a spring pasque flower, what is different about the Bloodroot - is that it bleeds...a thick red sap, upon being picked. I remember stopping the car in the middle of roads to hop out and take a look at a white ditch flower - just in case, it was Bloodroot. Nope. About 20 some years later - I celebrated a significant birthday at the county park exploring and picnicing with my then, 5 yr. old son. My spring bday is usually overlooked (farming family you know), so I was feeling blue. After a lovely afternoon we proceeded to leave and lo and behold greeting me at the exit of the park across the road (yes - in the Klemm pasture ditch), was a white flower. YOU BET - I pulled over and jumped out to pick and "test" this flower. AND IT BLED. It was the Bloodroot mom had forever been searching for. Now, mom was in her latter years of Alzheimer's and missing her, especially this day, was strong. SHE SPOKE to me!!!! So - I went back and dug up a little wad of bloodroot and replanted in my garden. For ten years now, it grows, sprouts out a flower or two. And this year - TEN YEARS LATER - look what I've got! A "clutch" - a posey of many many blossoms.
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