Dicentra formosa

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Dicentra formosa
Dicentra formosa 6897.JPG
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Papaveraceae
Genus: Dicentra
Species:
D. formosa
Binomial name
Dicentra formosa

Dicentra formosa (western, wild or Pacific bleeding-heart) is a species of flowering plant in the poppy family, Papaveraceae (subfamily: Fumarioideae). With its fern-like foliage and inflorescence of drooping pink, purple, yellow or cream "hearts", this species is native to the United States' Pacific Northwest and West Coast of North America. [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Description

Pacific bleeding-heart is a perennial herbaceous plant. Its leaves are three to four times divided and fern-like, growing from a brittle rhizome at the base of the plant. It grows to 18 in (45 cm) tall by 24 in (60 cm) wide. [6] [7] [8] [9]

The flowers are pink, red, or white and heart-shaped and bloom in clusters of 5 to 15 at the top of leafless, fleshy stems above the leaves from mid-spring to autumn, with peak flowering in spring. The four petals are attached at the base. The two outer petals form a pouch at the base and curve outwards at the tips. The two inner petals are perpendicular to the outer petals and connected at the tip. [6] [7] There are two tiny, pointed sepals behind the petals. Seeds are borne in plump, pointed pods. The plant self-seeds readily. It frequently goes dormant for the summer after flowering, emerging and flowering again in autumn.[ citation needed ]

The species contains isoquinoline, a toxic alkaloid known to be fatal to cattle. [10]

The Pacific bleeding-heart is frequently confused with the fringed bleeding-heart ( Dicentra eximia ) [11] and sold under that name. The fringed bleeding-heart has narrower flowers and longer, more curved outer petal tips. D. formosa is related to Lamprocapnos spectabilis , another popular plant called "bleeding heart", which was formerly placed in the same genus.

Ecology

The Pacific bleeding-heart is native to moist woodland, forest, and streambanks from California to British Columbia, from sea level to the subalpine zone. [6] [7]

There are two subspecies, Dicentra formosa subsp. formosa and Dicentra formosa subsp. oregona. Subsp. formosa grows in the majority of the plant's range, from Vancouver Island and southern British Columbia and south through Washington and Oregon to central California in the Coast Ranges and Cascades, and on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. Subsp. oregana grows in a small area of southern Oregon and northern California in serpentine soils in the Siskiyou Mountains. These subspecies are also distinguished by appearance:

Cultivars

Dicentra formosa 'Bacchanal' DicentraBachanal.jpg
Dicentra formosa 'Bacchanal'

Dicentra formosa is widely grown as a garden plant, and several cultivars have been developed. [12] Those marked agm have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:

Dicentra 'Aurora' Dicentra formosa 'Aurora'2.jpg
Dicentra 'Aurora'

There are several hybrid cultivars involving D. formosa, the eastern American species D. eximia and the Japanese species D. peregrina : [12]

History

The Pacific bleeding-heart (Dicentra formosa subsp. formosa) was first noted by Europeans when the Scottish surgeon and naturalist Archibald Menzies encountered it on the Vancouver Expedition. Menzies collected seed in 1792 in Nootka Sound, and gave it to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in 1795. From there, seed made its way into cultivation in Europe. It apparently was not cultivated in the United States until 1835, when William Kenrick began selling the plant in Boston. The subspecies oregana was first cultivated around 1932, when it was offered by Borsch and Sons in Oregon, but is not grown very often. [12]

Related Research Articles

<i>Begonia</i> Genus of perennial flowering plants

Begonia is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Begoniaceae. The genus contains more than 2,000 different plant species. The Begonias are native to moist subtropical and tropical climates. Some species are commonly grown indoors as ornamental houseplants in cooler climates. In cooler climates some species are cultivated outside in summertime for their bright colorful flowers, which have sepals but no petals.

<i>Eschscholzia californica</i> Species of flowering plant and state flower of California

Eschscholzia californica, the California poppy, golden poppy, California sunlight or cup of gold, is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae, native to the United States and Mexico. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant flowering in summer, with showy cup-shaped flowers in brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow. It is also used as food or a garnish. It became the official state flower of California in 1903.

<i>Dianthus</i> Genus of flowering plants

Dianthus is a genus of about 340 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, native mainly to Europe and Asia, with a few species in north Africa and in southern Africa, and one species in arctic North America. Common names include carnation, pink and sweet william.

<i>Dicentra</i> Genus of flowering plants in the poppy family Papaveraceae

Dicentra, known collectively as the bleeding-hearts, is a genus containing eight species of herbaceous flowering perennial plants with unique, "heart"-shaped flowers and finely divided foliage. The species are, primarily, native to North America, although several are found in temperate East Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hellebore</span> Genus of plants

Commonly known as hellebores, the Eurasian genus Helleborus consists of approximately 20 species of herbaceous or evergreen perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, within which it gave its name to the tribe of Helleboreae. Many hellebore species are poisonous.

<i>Dasiphora fruticosa</i> Species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae

Dasiphora fruticosa is a species of hardy deciduous flowering shrub in the family Rosaceae, native to the cool temperate and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere, often growing at high altitudes in mountains. Dasiphora fruticosa is still widely referenced in the horticultural literature under its synonym Potentilla fruticosa. Common names include shrubby cinquefoil, golden hardhack, bush cinquefoil, shrubby five-finger, widdy, kuril tea and tundra rose.

<i>Dicentra cucullaria</i> Species of flowering plants in the poppy family Papaveraceae

Dicentra cucullaria, Dutchman's britches, or Dutchman's breeches, is a perennial herbaceous plant, native to rich woods of eastern North America, with a disjunct population in the Columbia Basin.

<i>Paeonia daurica <span style="font-style:normal;">subsp.</span> mlokosewitschii</i> Subspecies of flowering plant

Paeonia daurica subsp. mlokosewitschii, the golden peony or Caucasian peony, is a species of flowering plant native to the Caucasus Mountains in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Dagestan, where it grows on rocky slopes in oak, hornbeam, or beech forests. The plant is sometimes nicknamed Molly the witch, a humorous mispronunciation of the species name, which most people find difficult to pronounce. It was formerly regarded as a separate species, Paeonia mlokosewitschii, but in 2002, the Chinese botanist Hong Deyuan reduced it to a subspecies of Paeonia daurica.

<i>Dicentra canadensis</i> Species of flowering plants in the poppy family Papaveraceae

Dicentra canadensis, the squirrel corn, is a flowering plant from eastern North America with oddly shaped white flowers and finely divided leaves.

<i>Dicentra nevadensis</i> Species of flowering plants in the poppy family Papaveraceae

Dicentra nevadensis, the Sierra bleeding heart or Tulare County bleeding heart, is a perennial plant endemic to gravelly outcroppings in the Sierra Nevada peaks of Tulare and Fresno Counties in California.

<i>Dicentra pauciflora</i> Species of flowering plants in the poppy family Papaveraceae

Dicentra pauciflora is a species of flowering plant in Dicentra, the genus containing the bleeding-hearts. Its common names include shorthorn steer's head and few-flowered bleeding-heart. This perennial wildflower is native to the US states of Oregon and California, where it grows high in the mountains in gravelly soils. This is a short bleeding-heart, approaching 10 centimeters in maximum height. From a rhizome beneath the soil it extends several erect petioles, each holding a leaf divided into leaflets which are each divided into smooth, fingerlike lobes. It also erects a thin stem which is topped with an inflorescence of one to three nodding flowers. Each flower is a shade of pink or purple to white, with two curving outer petals flexed back against the flower, and inner petals extended straight outward. The fruit is a capsule just over a centimeter long. The specific epithet pauciflora, refers to the Latin term for 'few flowered'.

<i>Dicentra eximia</i> Species of flowering plants in the poppy family Papaveraceae

Dicentra eximia is a flowering plant with fernlike leaves and oddly shaped flowers native to the Appalachian Mountains. It is similar to the Pacific bleeding-heart, which grows on the Pacific Coast. Dicentra eximia is a perennial herb in the Papaveraceae family.

<i>Ehrendorferia ochroleuca</i> Species of flowering plant

Ehrendorferia ochroleuca, commonly known as white eardrops or yellow bleeding-heart, is a biennial or perennial, native to gravelly areas in the chaparral and woodlands of California and in Baja California.

<i>Salvia microphylla</i> Species of shrub

Salvia microphylla, synonyms including Salvia grahamii, Salvia lemmonii and Salvia neurepia, the baby sage, Graham's sage, or blackcurrant sage, is an evergreen shrub found in the wild in southeastern Arizona and the mountains of eastern, western, and southern Mexico. It is a very complex species which easily hybridizes, resulting in numerous hybrids and cultivars brought into horticulture since the 1990s. The specific epithet microphylla, from the Greek, means "small leaved". In Mexico it is called mirto de montes, or "myrtle of the mountains".

<i>Cyclamen coum</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae

Cyclamen coum, the eastern sowbread, is a species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae. It is a tuberous herbaceous perennial, growing to 5–8 cm (2–3 in), with rounded heart-shaped leaves and pink shell-shaped flowers with darker coloration at the base. It is valued in horticulture as groundcover, and for the flowers which bloom in winter and early spring.

<i>Dicentra peregrina</i> Species of flowering plants in the poppy family Papaveraceae

Dicentra peregrina is a herbaceous perennial growing from a rhizome, native to mountains in Japan and nearby areas of East Asia.

<i>Dactylicapnos</i> Genus of climbing flowering plants in the poppy family Papaveraceae

Dactylicapnos is a genus of frost-tender perennial or annual climbers native to the Himalayas, northern Burma, central southern China, and northern Vietnam.

<i>Cyclamen repandum</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae

Cyclamen repandum, the spring sowbread, is a species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae, native to southern Europe and some Mediterranean islands. It is the most widespread of a group of cyclamens with wide, heart-shaped leaves, often coarsely toothed or lobed, and late spring-blooming flowers with long, slender petals.

<i>Sedum spathulifolium</i> Species of succulent

Sedum spathulifolium is a species of flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae known by the common names broadleaf stonecrop, yellow stonecrop, and spoon-leaved stonecrop. An evergreen perennial, it is native to western North America from British Columbia to southern California, where it can be found often in shade in many types of rocky habitat in coastal and inland hills and mountains.

Dudleya formosa, known by the common name La Misión liveforever, is a species of perennial succulent plant endemic to the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California. It is characterized by bright green leaves, red floral stems, and pink flowers.

References

  1. "Dicentra formosa (Andrews) Walp". Plants of the World Online. The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. n.d. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  2. "Dicentra formosa (Andrews) Walp". Catalogue of Life. Species 2000. n.d. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  3. Sullivan, Steven. K. (2015). "Dicentra formosa". Wildflower Search. Retrieved 2015-04-23.
  4. "Dicentra formosa". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture; Natural Resources Conservation Service. 2015. Retrieved 2015-04-23.
  5. Sierra Nevada Wildflowers, Karen Wiese, 2nd Ed., 2013, p. 83
  6. 1 2 3 Klinkenberg, Brian, ed. (2014). "Dicentra formosa". E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Plants of British Columbia [eflora.bc.ca]. Lab for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Retrieved 2015-04-23.
  7. 1 2 3 Giblin, David, ed. (2015). "Dicentra formosa". WTU Herbarium Image Collection. Burke Museum, University of Washington. Retrieved 2015-04-23.
  8. "Dicentra formosa". Jepson eFlora: Taxon page. Jepson Herbarium; University of California, Berkeley. 2015. Retrieved 2015-04-23.
  9. RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN   978-1405332965.
  10. Benoliel, Doug (2011). Northwest Foraging: The Classic Guide to Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest (Rev. and updated ed.). Seattle, WA: Skipstone. p. 207. ISBN   978-1-59485-366-1. OCLC   668195076.
  11. Tebbitt, Mark; Lidén, Magnus; Zetterlund, Henrik (2008). Bleeding hearts, Corydalis, and their relatives . Timber Press. pp.  61–63. ISBN   9780881928822.
  12. 1 2 3 Tebbitt, Mark; Lidén, Magnus; Zetterlund, Henrik (2008). Bleeding hearts, Corydalis, and their relatives . Timber Press. pp.  63–66. ISBN   9780881928822.
  13. "RHS Plant Selector Dicentra formosa 'Bacchanal' AGM / RHS Gardening". Apps.rhs.org.uk. Retrieved 2012-10-21.
  14. "RHS Plant Selector Dicentra 'Luxuriant' AGM / RHS Gardening". Apps.rhs.org.uk. Retrieved 2012-10-21.
  15. "RHS Plant Selector Dicentra 'Stuart Boothman' AGM / RHS Gardening". Apps.rhs.org.uk. Retrieved 2012-10-21.