PAPAVERACEAE POPPY FAMILY 
BLOODROOT 
Sanguinaria canadensis L. 
The Bloodroot gets its name from the orange-red 
juice that flows out when any part of the stem or petiole 
is cut or broken. This juice is called latex and in most 
plants in which it is found 
is milky white. Latex is 
different from the sap of 
the plant and occurs in 
special receptacles. It 
usually contains a mixture 
of nearly everything that 
is produced in the plant, 
including foods and waste 
materials, but no definite 
function is known for it. 
Rubber is made from the 
latex of rubber plants and 
probably all latex con- 
tains rubber in small 
amounts. 
The Bloodroot is a com- 
mon perennial in rich woods 
from Nova Scotia, Manitoba 
and Nebraska to Florida, 
Alabama and Arkansas. It 
blooms in April or early May. 
From the terminal bud of the 
thickened underground stem 
arise a leaf and a stem with 
a single flower. At first the 
leaf partly envelops the flowering shoot but later it unfolds, 
enlarges, and, persisting well into the summer, manufactures 
food to be stored in the underground stem and then to be used 
the following spring. 
The 2 sepals fall off as the flower opens but 8 or more con- 
spicuous white petals remain. Like most members of the Poppy 
family, the flowers do not last long and if picked the petals soon 
drop off. The fruit is a many-seeded 1-celled pod. 
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