Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
I'm switching over to some wildflower shots from this weekend, in preparation before a week-long birding shoot in Kansas coming up in a couple of weeks. We were specifically seeking Hepatica, but this beauty might be my favorite shot. Some interesting facts I have learned about Bloodroot:
- It blooms for a single day, then the petals drop off. This explains why I don't recall having seen it bloom before...
- The eponymous sap from their root is nasty stuff, classified as an escharotic-- i.e. it burns the skin and can cause necrosis and permanent scarring.
- In spite (or because of) this, it has been used as an herbal medicine to treat skin cancer. Evidence does not show that it is effective, and in fact use can lead to metastasis.
St. Francois State Park, St. Francois County, Missouri
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
I'm switching over to some wildflower shots from this weekend, in preparation before a week-long birding shoot in Kansas coming up in a couple of weeks. We were specifically seeking Hepatica, but this beauty might be my favorite shot. Some interesting facts I have learned about Bloodroot:
- It blooms for a single day, then the petals drop off. This explains why I don't recall having seen it bloom before...
- The eponymous sap from their root is nasty stuff, classified as an escharotic-- i.e. it burns the skin and can cause necrosis and permanent scarring.
- In spite (or because of) this, it has been used as an herbal medicine to treat skin cancer. Evidence does not show that it is effective, and in fact use can lead to metastasis.
St. Francois State Park, St. Francois County, Missouri