Search Results for: bloodroot

Size: 6” x 12”
Care: part shade to shade in moist well-drained soil
Native: Nova Scotia to Manitoba, south to Florida and Arkansas, Wisconsin native
Wildlife Value: deer resistant. Pollen, but no nectar, makes this attractive to many different bees. Ants distribute the seeds.

Sanguinaria is Latin meaning “blood,” so named for the red color of the sap.  Natives used sap to make dye for skin, clothing, weapons, and baskets.  Used to induce abortions, as well as an aphrodisiac and to cure sexually transmitted disease. The root rubbed on the palm of the hand was a love charm for Ponca men.   Iroquois prescribed it for diarrhea and constipation, to draw out slivers, hiccups, and generally as a panacea.  It was administered to those who saw a corpse.  Sioux used a weak solution to cure fever, rheumatism, congestion, and skin cancer Ojibwa made dried roots into a necklace to prevent bleeding.  Collected by Rev. John Banister in colonial Virginia c. 1678.  According to Pennsylvania nurseryman  John Bartram(1699-1776) this was “…(C)alled by the Country People, Red Root, or Tumerick  The Root dried and powdered is recommenced by Dr. Colden, as a Cure for jaundice, the Powder has been given to the Weight of a Drachm in Small Beer; and by others, for the Bite of a Rattle Snake.”     Grown at Shadwell, Jefferson’s birthplace and home until it burned in 1770.  Grown at America’s 1^st botanic garden, Elgin Botanic Garden 1811, located where Rockefeller Center now stands.  Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson’s herbarium.