Dicentra eximia is a 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...

 perennial

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...

 growing from rhizome

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

s, native to rocky woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

 and bases of cliff

Cliff

In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...

s in the Appalachians

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...

 from Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 south.

Description

Leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are finely divided and gray-green, growing from the base of the plant.

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 are pink and bloom in tight clusters at the top of leafless, fleshy stems above the leaves from mid-spring

Spring (season)

Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and...

 to autumn

Autumn

Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter usually in September or March when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier....

. The 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 are connected at the base. The two outer petals are pouched at the base and bent back at the tips. The inner petals are perpendicular to the outer petals and connected at the tip. The 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...

 is enclosed within the inner petals, and the two stamen

Stamen

The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...

s are on either side. There are two tiny, triangular, pink sepals above the 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 are borne in a plump, pointed pod

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...

. They ripen to black while the pod is still green. Each has a white 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...

 prized by ant

Ant

Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...

s.

Similar species

Pacific bleeding-heart (Dicentra formosa

Dicentra formosa

Dicentra formosa is a herbaceous perennial growing from a rhizome, native to moist woodland from California to British Columbia.-Description:...

) is frequently confused with and sold as Dicentra eximia. It has wider, more rounded flowers with shorter wings on the outer petals (see the photo below).

Cultivars

There are several cultivar

Cultivar

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 of Dicentra eximia. Some are hybrids with Dicentra peregrina

Dicentra peregrina

Dicentra peregrina is a herbaceous perennial growing from a rhizome, native to Japan, the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Island, and northeastern Siberia .-Etymology:...

and Dicentra formosa

Dicentra formosa

Dicentra formosa is a herbaceous perennial growing from a rhizome, native to moist woodland from California to British Columbia.-Description:...

.

Dicentra eximia

• Dicentra eximia 'Alba' — white flowers
• Dicentra eximia 'Snowdrift' — larger white flowers

Hybrids

• Dicentra 'Bountiful' — Dicentra formosa subsp. oregana × Dicentra eximia — rosy red flowers
• Dicentra 'King of Hearts' — Dicentra peregrina × (Dicentra formosa subsp. oregana × Dicentra eximia) — pink flowers, very finely cut leaves
• Dicentra 'Luxuriant' — Dicentra eximia × Dicentra peregrina — cherry-red flowers
• Dicentra 'Silversmith — Dicentra formosa subsp. oregana × Dicentra eximia — white, pink-flushed flowers
• Dicentra 'Stuart Boothman' — probably Dicentra formosa subsp. oregana × Dicentra eximia — deep pink flowers

External links

• USDA Plants Profile
• Flora of North America
• Native Plant Identification Network
• PlantFiles
• PlantFinder — Kemper Center for Home Gardening, Missouri Botanical Garden
• Paghat's Garden