Bleeding Hearts

Bleeding Heart (Dicentra sp.) is a shade-loving perennial herb, native to the Orient and happiest in cool, moist woodlands. The plant was once assigned to the Papaveraceae family (which also includes the opium poppy, from which morphine is derived). Now a member of the Fumariaceae, it has sedative and cardiovascular effects, lowering heart rate and blood pressure. Misused, it can be deadly.

Bleeding Heart takes its name from its unique blossoms, which are shaped like delicate, dangling hearts in shades of red, pink, lavender, or white. In some forms, the red inner petals give the appearance of drops of blood. It has several cousins with descriptive common names: Mary’s Heart, Golden Eardrops, and Dutchman’s Breeches.

Dicentra cucullaria, Bleeding Heart’s white-flowering cousin, was used by Menominee Indians as a powerful love charm and aphrodisiac. The blossom was thrown by a young man at the girl he fancied; if it hit her, she was bound to fall in love with him. The young man chewed the plant’s root and then breathed on the object of his affection. It was believed that the fragrance of his breath charmed her, even against her will.