Bleeding Heart Family Height: 4" - 12" April 15, 2005 Dutchman's Breeches (a.k.a. "Little Boy Plant") is closely related to Squirrel Corn (a.k.a. "Little Girl Plant") and the leaves are nearly identical. The flowers look like little white pants hanging on a line to dry. The plant is only a few inches high, so you'll have to look closely to find it. Perennial Where seen: Great Smoky Mountains NP, Norris Dam SP, Warriors' Path SP, Ijams Nature Center
Poppy Family Height: To 6" March 28, 2005 Looking forward to seeing these beautiful white flowers shining in the sun on an early spring day helps me get through the long, cold winter! Bloodroot plants have an iodine-colored juice in the roots, which gives them their name. The leaves envelop the flowers before they bloom. You can find large clusters of these flowers blooming in early March, they are one of the first to emerge from the forest floor. What a beautiful prelude to spring! These were blooming in a garden at the University of Tennessee Arboretum. Bloodroot is one of the first wildflowers to greet hikers on the Norris Dam State Park Bluff Trail. Perennial Where seen: Norris Dam SP, Frozen Head SP, Great Smoky Mountains NP, University of Tennessee Arboretum, Haw Ridge Greenway, Warriors' Path SP, Ijams Nature Center
Bleeding Heart Family Height: To 12" April 7, 2005 The little white flowers of Squirrel Corn look like white Bleeding Hearts flowers. Look for them in late March or early April. The finely cut leaves in this picture are the leaves of this plant. These were blooming along the Wildflower Greenway Trail in Oak Ridge. They are common in the Smokies too. Plants in the Dicentra species are poisonous to cattle and cats, they contain the poisons, isoquinolone alkaloids . Perennial Where seen: Oak Ridge Greenways, Great Smoky Mountains NP, Warriors' Path SP, Ijams Nature Center
