Bloodroot, March 31

During my hike on the mountain Sunday, the most common non-dormant flora I saw was Bloodroot. I've always wanted to dig up one of the flowers and split open the rhizome to see the red sap, but I keep forgetting when I see them. I'll have to be careful, because the "blood" is toxic (alkaloid) and can burn your skin. The broad spreads of flowers I see on the mountain are probably colonies that grew from one rhizome. They don't grow in broken ground, so I only see them in the really wild woodlands.



Sanguinaria canadensis

The word "sanguine" in English goes back to the Latin for "blood" -- in the ancient theory of the Four Humours, the body fluids influencing health and personality were blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm, and someone with a predominance of blood in the balance was sanguine of temperament. I like that blood was also associated with Spring.