Bloodroot

Hello everyone. The forest around my house has several medicinal wild plants but yesterday was the first time I took any. I harvested them for a friend who wanted them in her woodland area that’s very similar to mine. I had never seen bloodroot before but thought it was cool enough to share. The other plant is black cohosh.

There are so many interesting north american woodland plants that are edible.  Cucumber root is another that I'm quite keen on tyrying to grow.

Love your picture of bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) and it has fab flowers too. I have tried to grow it here in Devon, UK and it survived some years of slug attention and alkaline soil, but suspect it prefers an acidic woodland environment. Needless to say I have never had enough growing to harvest. The plant is in the poppy family and key constituents are isoquinoline alkaloids traditionally used in expectorant cough mixtures. Though sanguinarine is also recognised as antimicrobial, antiinflammatory and studies have looked at antitumour activity.

Hey Nancy. Thanks for telling me about cucumber root. That’s not one I’ve heard of so I’ll be looking it up!
Good morning Anne. I had never heard of most of my woodland plants until moving here. I really wanted to identify everything I saw. You’re right, the soil here is very acidic. In the low areas it’s 5.5-5.8.
Two kinds of wild ginger, trillium and ferns also grow in the woodlands. Along the edges there’s three kinds of milkweed including an endangered species known as Carolina climbing milkweed. I have a lot of it and feel blessed that it grows here.

Hope you were ok handling that. The juices of the plant will eat holes in flesh, or cause blindness if it gets near the eyes. I was actually wondering how easy it was to harvest these, since I know Native Americans used to make red & orange paint & dye from it, but I have no clue how they rendered it harmless.

D Tucholske wrote:Hope you were ok handling that. The juices of the plant will eat holes in flesh, or cause blindness if it gets near the eyes. I was actually wondering how easy it was to harvest these, since I know Native Americans used to make red & orange paint & dye from it, but I have no clue how they rendered it harmless.

This is a root that is harvested fairly commonly for commerce in the Appalachians, but not much used anymore by the local mountain folks.  The sap of the root has to be fairly concentrated to burn off warts and such.  The demand is mostly as a use in some folk cancer remedies.  Sometimes the kids use it to get high.  A few old-timers and younger herbalists use it in formulas.  I have a little patch behind my house.  Here are its specifics:

Blood root was a traditional remedy of the native North American Indians who used it to treat fevers and rheumatism, to induce vomiting and as an element in divination. In modern herbalism it is chiefly employed as an expectorant, promoting coughing and the clearing of mucus from the respiratory tract. The root is locally anaesthetic, cathartic, emetic, emmenagogue, expectorant, diuretic, febrifuge, sedative, stimulant, tonic. It is taken internally in the treatment of bronchial, respiratory tract and throat infections, and poor peripheral circulation. Use with caution and preferably only under the guidance of a qualified practitioner. The root is toxic, containing a number of opium-like alkaloids that are also found in other members of this family. An excessive dose depresses the central nervous system, causes nausea and vomiting, and may prove fatal. This remedy should not be prescribed for pregnant or lactating women. Externally, the root is used in the treatment of skin diseases, warts, nasal polyps, benign skin tumours, sore throats and chilblains. An infusion of the root or the sap of the fresh root is used. The root can be harvested in the autumn, dried and stored for later use. It should not be allowed to become damp since it will then deteriorate. Sanguinarine, which is obtained from the root, is used as a dental plaque inhibitor. The root is used to make a homeopathic remedy that is used to treat migraine.

I have used bloodroot as a dye by making a decoction of the root.  It will turn white cloth a dark "saffron" yellow.

It grows well in the neutral soil here in Chicago, and also in the more alkali soil of SE Minnesota where I grew up.

Not sure what your growing situation is, but it does really like to be in a forest or under a tree.