This plant was so special it was specifically named in one of the first treaties between the Alqonquin (Potowmacks) Native Nation and Great Britain in 1677, The Treaty of Middle Plantation.1 They reserved their right on land sold to/taken by Great Britain to continue to collect reeds for basketmaking as well as collecting “Puckoone” root (the Algonquin word), or Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis).
John Lawson, one of the earliest explorers in North Carolina and Virginia, made many drawings of the people and plants and took notes on what he saw. He visited the Saponie in 1701 where they were living at the headwaters of the Yadkin River, in the North Carolina foothills. He wrote:
Amongst the Bears Oil (when they intend to be fine) they mix a certain red Powder, that comes from a Scarlet Root which they get in the hilly Country near the Foot of the great Ridge of Mountains and it is no where else to be found. They have this Scarlet Root in great Esteem, and sell it for a very great Price, one to another.2
This happens to be close to the very place where I was shown a number of forest plants by my Grandfather and one of those was the Bloodroot. In early spring they are one of the first flowers to bloom. You might find them alongside “spring beauty” – a delicate small flower with grass-like leaves. It is too early for bloodroot and spring beauty now, but spring is coming in a couple of weeks and that will be the time to start looking for them.
In early spring, the trees have not had time to grow a thick canopy yet, and it allows sunlight to filter through the barren branches to reach early plants that are “ephemerals”. They bloom and live for just a few weeks, and then die back until next year.
Bloodroot actually grows widely over the east coast, not just in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The medicinal and traditional uses
Bloodroot has been used to treat ailments from gangrene, rheumatism, polyps and even skin cancer. It has been on the U.S. Pharmacopeia since about 1820 until the 1920s.3 The biochemical in bloodroot that is responsible for the skin irritation and skin healing is “Sanguinarium” and it is also found in poppy seeds, and belongs to the family of benzoquinolines.4 Even as recently as 2021, a scientific study found that it does have some beneficial effect on skin cancer, where “recent preclinical studies have concluded that sanguinarine, the active component of bloodroot, shows positive evidence of being an efficacious treatment for skin cancers at micromolar doses.”
The root is very red, reddish-orange when broken apart and was used by Native Americans on the east coast for red face paint, made by mixing the root with animal fat. Carrying a piece of the root was said to ward off evil according to a Cherokee story.
The Ponca Nation used bloodroot rubbed on the palm of their hand and it is said that if you hold the hand of another, they will be yours within the week. Wearing bloodroot while courting is also considered to be a positive strategy.
Protecting the Bloodroot
Plants are protected under the Endangered Species Act. A “plant” is defined under the act as anything in the Plant Kingdom.
A U.S. Fish & Wildlife flyer explains prohibited activities under the Endangered Species Act with regard to endangered plants:
Section 9(a)(2) of the Act5 makes it unlawful to: import and export such species; remove and reduce to possession any such species from areas under Federal jurisdiction; maliciously damage or destroy any such species on such areas; or remove, cut, dig up or damage or destroy any such species on any other area in knowing violation of any law or regulation of any state or in the course of any violation of a state criminal trespass law; and deliver, receive, transport, carry, ship or sell or offer for sale in interstate or foreign commerce such species. The prohibitions apply equally to live or dead plants, their progeny, and parts or products derived from them.
The same prohibitions apply to “threatened” plants, a lesser status of protection, except seeds are exempt from these prohibitions if they are artificially propagated, with a statement as to their origin.6
An important part of this is that if an endangered or threatened plant is taken while committing a crime of trespass under state law, then it is a violation of the federal statute. This prevents others from harvesting endangered or threatened plants on private property. The biggest problem with ESA is that it cannot protect endangered plants on private property from the property owner, unlike animals.
However, the National Park Service prohibits the collection of plants or any materials from national parks. Although the bloodroot is not on the ESA threatened or endangered list, harvesting bloodroot in a National Parks is illegal. The Shenandoah National Park specifically names the bloodroot as a plant that should not be disturbed and has sometimes been taken illegally from the Park. In order to monitor for this theft, they have designated plots that they can check for any disturbances.7
Bloodroot is not listed as either endangered or threatened under the federal statute but it can still be protected by state endangered species acts. According to plant savers, an organization dedicated to protecting plants, Bloodroot is listed as “Exploitably Vulnerable” in New York and of “Special Concern” in Rhode Island.8
The ants, the bees
Bloodroot has a kind of mutualism with ants, where they help each other. The seeds of the bloodroot contain an oil-rich food for ants (an elaiosome), so the ants carry the seeds and disperse them for future new flowers.9 They do this by taking the fatty part outside the seed that they ingest and discarding the rest of the seed in a kind of trash pile, where it can take root and grow later.
The pollinators, bees, spread the pollen of the bloodroot but oddly, the bees are not the beneficiaries of nectar in return, because the bloodroot produces no nectar. The attractive pedals and yellow pollen are enough to lure the bees to come to it for nectar, but leave without any nectar, still carrying pollen to the next flower.10 It is unclear what benefit the bees derive from visiting the bloodroot, but fortunately, they continue to visit.11
So why this focus on the bloodroot?
The bloodroot is worthy of our attention. It may be the most important trading plant in pre-colonial and colonial American that you have never heard of. It has an intricate connection to the ecology around it, and a long history of medicinal use by humankind that continues today.
It also has a solid place in the hearts of everyone who sees its appearance as the first sign of spring and the hope and renewal that means for humans and the world.
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/6698-d3cdbf7df53610e/
John Kincheloe, “Rediscovering Christanna— Native Worlds and Governor Spotswood’s Fort,” (2019) pp. 63-64.
https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/gtr/gtr_srs086.pdf at page 7.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33128472/
16 U.S.C. Sec. 1538 at https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/16/1538
https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/nature/wf_bloodroot.htm
https://unitedplantsavers.org/species-at-risk-list/bloodroot-sanguinaria-canadensis-2/
https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/nature/wf_bloodroot.htm and https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/gtr/gtr_srs086.pdf
https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/nature/wf_bloodroot.htm
https://thewildlife.blog/2018/05/14/this-toxic-nectarless-flower-is-spread-by-ants/