Bloodroot beginning to bloom on Homesite

It’s somehow surprising that one of the first spring ephemerals to plus through the surface has such a startling name.

Bloodroot!

Its name comes from the color of sap stored in its root or rhizome. As time passes, the rhizome grows just under the surface and creates a colony of the remarkable wildflower. Native Americans used this blood red sap as a dye and body paint and called the plant "puccoon."

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is beginning to bloom on the Ijams Homesite.


For other wildflower locations check out Outdoor Knoxville.

- Text and photo by Stephen Lyn Bales