Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
Bloodroot belongs to a group of flowering plants known as spring ephemerals. It emerges from the ground as a single leaf wrapped around a flower stalk in early spring, in some places while there's still snow on the ground, and completes much of its annual growth cycle before leaves appear on the trees above.
The flower emerges from the stalk with 8-12 bright white and delicate petals. It is a member of the poppy family, and shares some of the distinctive features of members of that family—lobed leaves and milky sap. One of the things that distinguishes bloodroot from other poppies is the color of its sap.
Its bright red to orange color is the source of the plant’s name. Across its range in the Eastern half of the US and Canada, bloodroot grows in woods or thickets, often in riparian areas. It rarely tolerates disturbed areas, and often signifies an intact forest.
What do you love about this particular creature?
What do they reveal to you about God and our faith?
It was our first spring in the rectory, the snow had just melted, and the first green shoots were making their way up towards the light. Under the dogwood outside the kitchen were familiar forms I hadn’t expected to see—the delicate white flowers and unmistakable lobed leaves of bloodroot. They seemed to emerge out of nowhere and disappeared as quickly as they came. Bloodroot is a true ephemeral.
Their blooms begin to fade as soon as they’re pollinated and drop their white petals. Their ephemerality demands a practice of attention, of noticing the first stirrings of the ground in spring, and a readiness to behold the gift of new life when it comes.
They have the power to surprise and delight, but also to remind us that all life is “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14). Grass withers and the flower fades, but God’s love sustains us all in death and new life.
Author - The Rev. Nathan Bourne
The Rev. Nathan Bourne lives in the coastal lowlands of Eastern New Hampshire, where he stops to admire lady-slipper orchids and pileated woodpeckers on his early morning runs.
Infinite Creator God, thank you for all the living things you have made. You delight in giving humanity gift upon gift from your imagination and love. Help us to learn wise ways to protect and celebrate your creatures, human, tamed, and wild; that we may share peacefully and completely in your kindness and agape love with all creation. May we be a blessing to all that you have created as we glorify you. Amen.
Prayer by the Rev. Diana Rogers