Bloodroot! Bloodroot!

Wright State Woods, April 5, 2017

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is my favorite spring wildflower. It is also my favorite wildflower forever. If you want to see bloodroot flowers, you must really want to see them. They do not bloom a long time. They are only here in very early spring, and they are very fragile! But they are beautiful and make me want to cry every time I see one.

Wright State Woods, April 5, 2017

If you are too late or too early for bloodroot flowers, or if this year is not good, you will see only leaves. Little bloodroot leaves are dark green with brown red veins, and the tiny veins make nets in the leaf. They have three lobes, two side and one top. Early leaves fold on vein in line with the stem, but older leaves open and are flat.

Caesar Creek Gorge State Nature Preserve,
March 27, 2018

If the leaf has a flower bud, it curls around so happen the bud grows up through the leaf. The leaf protects the flower bud from snow. There is only one flower every year for one leaf, and the flower grows on a red brown stem. Two pink sepals cover the petals and open when the stalk is tall enough. When the petals open the sepals dry and fall off, so happen this flower can't close again.

Caesar Creek Gorge State Nature Preserve,
March 27, 2018

Then the white petals curl open. A normal flower has 7, 8, 9, or 10 petals, but sometimes flowers have many more. If it is wet the petals maybe will curl down and fall off soon. They do not have sepals for support and the big petals are heavy. If it is dry and sunny the petals become flat. Inside the petals there are more than twenty yellow anthers on white filaments. In center there is one yellow green pistil.

Wright State Woods, April 5, 2017

It is really lucky if you see bloodroot bloom on a dry and sunny day. Most times bloodroot does not bloom long, maybe one or two days, because wind or rain can really easy break the big petals. Beetles and flies, and sometimes bees polinate bloodroot flowers, or they self pollinate. When happen the flower is fertilized, the petals and anthers fall and only the pistil is still there. Ants will come and eat the oil on the fruit and happen they will bury the seeds.

Wright State Woods, April 5, 2017

Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve,
 May 13, 2017

After the flower is finished, happen the leaf becomes big and flat. It can become one or two hands wide. If you are too late for flowers one year, you can use the leaves for know where they will grow next year. In the hot summer the leaves die and the bloodroot waits until next spring to grow again.

Bloodroot studies. Pen and colored pencil.
April 9, 2017

Drawing for coaster series.  April 2016.

Because bloodroot flowers are only here for little time, it is very special to see it. Every year I try to see one bloodroot flower, and I am lucky if I see a perfect flower. I am grateful if I see an old flower, or a bud. I am grateful for every bloodroot I see, leaves also! This year I saw my bloodroot flower, so I am relieved. If I see no more flowers this year it is okay, but I am greedy, I want to see more!