Dicentra
Encyclopedia
Dicentra is a genus of 8 species of perennial
herbaceous
plants
in the fumitory family
, many with heart-shaped flower
s, native to eastern Asia
and North America
.
s and four petal
s. The petals are bisymmetric: the two outer ones are spurred or pouched at the base and curved outwards or backwards at the tip, and the two inner ones are straight and connected at the tip.
In Dicentra, all leaves are in a basal rosette
and flowers are on leafless stalks. In other genera with bisymmetric heart-shaped flowers (Lamprocapnos, Dactylicapnos
, Ichtyoselmis, Ehrendorferia
), leaves grow on flower stalks as well as from the base.
Each of the two compound stamen
s is composed of four stamens fused together. The stamens and pistil
are held between the inner petals.
Seed
s with elaiosome
s are borne in long pods
.
All parts are poisonous if ingested.
s involving Dicentra eximia, Dicentra formosa, and Dicentra peregrina, including:
Hybrids involving Dicentra peregrina are often intolerant of hot-humid climates and sun like the species itself.
Dactylicapnos Wall. (13 species of herbaceous climber
s with yellow flowers, Himalaya to SW China)
Lamprocapnos Endlicher (1 species of leafy herb with large pink flowers in horizontal racemes, NE China, Korea)
Ehrendorferia Lidén (2 species of erect robust leafy herbs with yellow or cream erect flowers, Western N America)
Ichtyoselmis Lidén (1 species of large leafy herb with serrate leaflets and large drooping cream flowers, China, Burma)
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
herbaceous
Herbaceous plant
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
plants
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
in the fumitory family
Fumariaceae
Fumariaceae is a family of about 575 species of herbaceous plants in 20 genera, native to the Northern Hemisphere and South Africa.-Flower shape:Plants in the fumitory family are easily recognised by their peculiar flowers with two dissimilar pairs of...
, many with heart-shaped flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s, native to eastern Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
Description
Flowers have two tiny sepalSepal
A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Collectively the sepals form the calyx, which is the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower. Usually green, sepals have the typical function of protecting the petals when the flower is in bud...
s and four petal
Petal
Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They often are brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. Together, all of the petals of a flower are called a corolla. Petals are usually accompanied by another set of special leaves called sepals lying...
s. The petals are bisymmetric: the two outer ones are spurred or pouched at the base and curved outwards or backwards at the tip, and the two inner ones are straight and connected at the tip.
In Dicentra, all leaves are in a basal rosette
Rosette (botany)
In botany, a rosette is a circular arrangement of leaves, with all the leaves at a single height.Though rosettes usually sit near the soil, their structure is an example of a modified stem.-Function:...
and flowers are on leafless stalks. In other genera with bisymmetric heart-shaped flowers (Lamprocapnos, Dactylicapnos
Dactylicapnos
Dactylicapnos is a genus of frost-tender perennial or annual climbers native to the Himalayas, northern Burma, central southern China, and northern Vietnam.-Description:...
, Ichtyoselmis, Ehrendorferia
Ehrendorferia
Ehrendorferia is a genus of two species of biennial and perennial herbaceous plants native to wildfire-prone areas of California.There are two species:* Ehrendorferia chrysantha J. RylanderGolden Eardrops...
), leaves grow on flower stalks as well as from the base.
Each of the two compound stamen
Stamen
The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...
s is composed of four stamens fused together. The stamens and pistil
Gynoecium
Gynoecium is most commonly used as a collective term for all carpels in a flower. A carpel is the ovule and seed producing reproductive organ in flowering plants. Carpels are derived from ovule-bearing leaves which evolved to form a closed structure containing the ovules...
are held between the inner petals.
Seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s with elaiosome
Elaiosome
Elaiosomes are fleshy structures that are attached to the seeds of many plant species. The elaiosome is rich in lipids and proteins, and may be variously shaped. Many plants have elaiosomes to attract ants, which take the seed to their nest and feed the elaiosome to their larvae...
s are borne in long pods
Capsule (fruit)
In botany a capsule is a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. A capsule is a structure composed of two or more carpels that in most cases is dehiscent, i.e. at maturity, it splits apart to release the seeds within. A few capsules are indehiscent, for example...
.
All parts are poisonous if ingested.
Species
- Dicentra canadensisDicentra canadensisDicentra canadensis, or squirrel corn, is a herbaceous plant in the fumitory family with small yellow clustered bulblets, finely dissected leaves, and white heart-shaped flowers, native to deciduous woodland in eastern North America.-References:...
(Goldie) Walp.
Squirrel-corn - Dicentra cucullariaDicentra cucullariaDicentra cucullaria is a perennial herbaceous plant, native to rich woods of eastern North America, with a disjunct population in the Columbia River Basin....
(L.) Bernh.
Dutchman's-breeches - Dicentra eximiaDicentra eximiaDicentra eximia is a herbaceous perennial growing from rhizomes, native to rocky woodland and bases of cliffs in the Appalachians from Pennsylvania south.-Description:...
(Ker-Gawl.) Torr.
Fringed Bleeding Heart, Turkey-corn - Dicentra formosaDicentra formosaDicentra formosa is a herbaceous perennial growing from a rhizome, native to moist woodland from California to British Columbia.-Description:...
(Haw.) Walp.
Western or Pacific Bleeding Heart- Dicentra formosaDicentra formosaDicentra formosa is a herbaceous perennial growing from a rhizome, native to moist woodland from California to British Columbia.-Description:...
subsp. formosa - Dicentra formosaDicentra formosaDicentra formosa is a herbaceous perennial growing from a rhizome, native to moist woodland from California to British Columbia.-Description:...
subsp. oregana
- Dicentra formosa
- Dicentra nevadensisDicentra nevadensisDicentra nevadensis is a perennial plant native to gravelly outcroppings in the Sierra Nevada peaks of Tulare and Fresno Counties, California, sometimes treated as a subspecies of Dicentra formosa .Leaves are finely divided and sprout from the base of the plant.Flowers are heart-shaped, dull white,...
Eastw.
Sierran Bleedinghearts - Dicentra paucifloraDicentra paucifloraDicentra pauciflora is a species of flowering plant in Dicentra, the genus containing the bleeding-hearts. Its common names include shorthorn steer's head and few-flowered bleeding-heart. This perennial wildflower is native to the US states of Oregon and California, where it grows high in the...
S. Wats.
Short-horn Steer's-head - Dicentra peregrinaDicentra peregrinaDicentra peregrina is a herbaceous perennial growing from a rhizome, native to Japan, the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Island, and northeastern Siberia .-Etymology:...
(Rudolphi) Makino
Komakusa - Dicentra unifloraDicentra unifloraDicentra uniflora is a herbaceous perennial growing from a tuber, native to gravelly soils in mountains of the western United States.Height is up to . Leaves are finely divided, with rounded leaflets....
Kellogg
Long-horn Steer's-head
- Dicentra lachenaliaeflora Ledeb.
- = Dicentra peregrinaDicentra peregrinaDicentra peregrina is a herbaceous perennial growing from a rhizome, native to Japan, the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Island, and northeastern Siberia .-Etymology:...
- = Dicentra peregrina
- Dicentra pusilla Siebold & Zucc.
- = Dicentra peregrina
- Dicentra oregana Eastw.
- = Dicentra formosa subsp. oregana
Hybrids and cultivars
There are several hybrids and cultivarCultivar
A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
s involving Dicentra eximia, Dicentra formosa, and Dicentra peregrina, including:
- Dicentra 'Aurora' — Dicentra formosa × Dicentra eximia — white flowers
- Dicentra 'Bacchanal' — Dicentra formosa cultivar — deep red
- Dicentra 'Ivory Hearts' — Dicentra peregrina × Dicentra eximia 'Alba' — white
- Dicentra 'King of Hearts' — Dicentra peregrina × (Dicentra formosa subsp. oregana × Dicentra eximia)
- Dicentra 'Luxuriant' — Dicentra eximia × Dicentra peregrina
Hybrids involving Dicentra peregrina are often intolerant of hot-humid climates and sun like the species itself.
Former species
17 species in 4 genera were formerly included in "Dicentra":Dactylicapnos Wall. (13 species of herbaceous climber
Vine
A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...
s with yellow flowers, Himalaya to SW China)
- Dactylicapnos burmanica (K.R.Stern) Lidén
- Dactylicapnos grandifoliolata Merrill (Dicentra paucinervia K.R.Stern)
- Dactylicapnos lichiangensis (Fedde) Hand.-Mazz.
- Dactylicapnos macrocapnos (Prain) Hutchinson
- Dactylicapnos roylei (Hook.f. & Th.) Hutchinson
- Dactylicapnos scandens (D.Don) Hutchinson
- Dactylicapnos schneideri (Fedde) Lidén
- Dactylicapnos thalictrifolia Wallich
- Dactylicapnos torulosa (Hook.f. & Th.) Hutchinson (Dicentra wolfdietheri Fedde)
- Dactylicapnos ventii (Khanh) Lidén
Lamprocapnos Endlicher (1 species of leafy herb with large pink flowers in horizontal racemes, NE China, Korea)
- Lamprocapnos spectabilis (L.) Fukuhara Old-fashioned Bleeding-heart = Dicentra spectabilis Lem.
Ehrendorferia Lidén (2 species of erect robust leafy herbs with yellow or cream erect flowers, Western N America)
- Ehrendorferia ochroleuca (Engelm.) Lidén = Dicentra ochroleuca Engelm.
- Ehrendorferia chrysantha (Hook. & Arn.) Lidén. Golden Ear-drops = Dicentra chrysantha Hook. & Arn.
Ichtyoselmis Lidén (1 species of large leafy herb with serrate leaflets and large drooping cream flowers, China, Burma)
- Ichtyoselmis macranthaIchtyoselmis macranthaIchtyoselmis macrantha is the only species in its genus...
(Oliver) Lidén