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Out There: Where does one find a bleeding heart?

There are a few, not many, that are of the bleeding heart kind and even less, that actually are bleeding hearts...
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Wild bleeding heart

There are a few, not many, that are of the bleeding heart kind and even less, that actually are bleeding hearts. I asked someone what they thought of when they heard the words “bleeding heart”. For them, it conjured up thoughts of someone who is acting unusually emotional or sentimental towards somebody or something that is in the slightest difficulty. Well, I’ll let you deal with that while I get into something I know a bit more about. When I refer to a “bleeding heart” group, I am thinking of a small group of very delicate spring wildflowers.

It’s not very often I go out of the Creston area to explore, much less write about it. However, at the end of April I did make it as far as VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver. There, as well as in the Lower Mainland, I was spellbound by the vast array of diversely coloured and showy flowering shrubs. There were masses of flowering rhododendrons, azaleas, laurels and viburnums, just to name a few, of many colors and shades. But the focus of my thoughts here is on the masses of wild bleeding heart flowers that completely transformed large patches of the forest floor from winter browns to soft pink hues. Thousands of heart shaped flowers hung from fragile 10-inch stems.

While this plant is plentiful west of the Cascade Mountains (near Hope), it is found only in a few sparsely scattered locations in the Kootenays. Of course, in local gardens, if you haven’t already, you will soon find a garden variety of bleeding heart displaying its pendant, red “hearts”.

It is only a slight mystery to me why this plant is called bleeding heart; however, it is a greater puzzle to me why members of this group are called “fumitories”. This name, fumitory, is based on the root meaning “smoke of the ground (earth)”. The only explanation I have for this group name is that some members of the group have bluish-green foliage, which, perhaps, gives the appearance of smoke.

The very small fumitory family also includes several members that are not red or pink but are white or yellow. Otherwise, they have very apparent similarities. A white one, that is in the “same room” with bleeding hearts has a very contrasting name, Dutchman’s breeches. Early in April, I saw little colonies of it in shady woodlands in southern Washington. You may find it more southerly also in Idaho and also on the east side of the continent where it is much more common. It would be a rare find to spot it here; that is, not in someone’s garden. (The flower has a small resemblance to pants hung upside-down on the clothesline).

The other significant and somewhat more common member of the “smoke of the earth” group, that you are likely to find, is, corydalis. Like other members of the group, you can find this yellow- or golden-flowered kind in open woods.

Steer’s head, with a name that doesn’t seem to fit in with bleeding heart, may be found in elusive pockets in the Kootenays. However, look for another, single-flowered bleeding heart that shows off a white or sometimes pink bloom.

Some members of the bleeding heart family, like corydalis, steer’s head and Dutchman’s breeches and off-the-continent varieties, just might be found, locally, in the gardens of some unusual-flower buffs. So, if you have missed them, check in with your gardening friends.

Ed McMackin is a biologist by profession but a naturalist and hiker by nature. He can be reached at 250-866-5747.