Bloodroot
(Sanguinaria canadensis). Deep East Texas.
Yesterday was a perfect spring day in the field. It was cloudy, breezy, and cool without being cold. My wife and I set out to check on one of the few bloodroot populations left in Texas. I was a bit worried that they would be closed due to the cloud cover, but the temperature and humidity must have been just right because most were wide open. Conditions were excellent for photography, and we spent a wonderful afternoon chasing after spring ephemerals.
East Texas is on the periphery of the range of a suite of spring ephemerals including bloodroot. Spring ephemerals as a group are adapted to deciduous, hardwood forests, where they can carry out the majority of their life cycle in the early spring, when an abundance of sunlight reaches the forest floor prior to leafout of the canopy. Species are generally less common on the periphery of their range. As a result of this coupled with habitat loss over the past century and a half, several of these species have become rare in East Texas. Bloodroot occurs in a handful of populations scattered throughout the Pineywoods.
Bloodroot
(Sanguinaria canadensis). Deep East Texas.
Yesterday was a perfect spring day in the field. It was cloudy, breezy, and cool without being cold. My wife and I set out to check on one of the few bloodroot populations left in Texas. I was a bit worried that they would be closed due to the cloud cover, but the temperature and humidity must have been just right because most were wide open. Conditions were excellent for photography, and we spent a wonderful afternoon chasing after spring ephemerals.
East Texas is on the periphery of the range of a suite of spring ephemerals including bloodroot. Spring ephemerals as a group are adapted to deciduous, hardwood forests, where they can carry out the majority of their life cycle in the early spring, when an abundance of sunlight reaches the forest floor prior to leafout of the canopy. Species are generally less common on the periphery of their range. As a result of this coupled with habitat loss over the past century and a half, several of these species have become rare in East Texas. Bloodroot occurs in a handful of populations scattered throughout the Pineywoods.