Bloodroot

Sanguinaria canadensis is truly a harbinger of spring. After winter snows mostly melt away, bloodroot makes its welcome appearance April into May poking up through the last year’s forest duff. Native to Minnesota, this flower creates a pure and magical fairyland when it emerges!

Bloodroot’s lobed leaves wrap themselves protectively around the floral stem at first, waiting for the flowers to bloom and wilt before their own stems grow taller. At that point, the leaves open up into their full size of about 5″ diameter. Leaf shape is round with several lobes and a deep indent at the base. Leaf margins (edges) have large, rounded or scalloped teeth. Both leaf and floral stems are reddish tinted.

Bloodroot was given its colorful name due to the fact that if you crush the root it releases a red latex liquid. What an impressive name for a label should you wish to put some up on the herbal medicinal shelf next to skullcap and stinging nettles! Crushed bloodroot, however, is not on my foraging agenda. Instead, I look forward annually to enjoying these cheerful white flower petals shining their faces up at me from the forest floor as if in invitation after a long, cold winter to sit down for a moment and hear what they have to say. Enjoy that early spring moment, for these flowers won’t last more than a few days!