Ninety thousand plants

Pacific bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa) is a native North American wildflower. I knew it was native on the West Coast, but I had no idea that it was also native in Massachusetts until I looked it up in the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database, gateway to a treasure-trove of information on native and naturalized plants.

NINETY THOUSAND PLANTS. Actually, a few hundred more than that. That's how many plants are listed in the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database, an invaluable resource any time but especially this time of year when many of us are thinking about spring planting.

Although it's never safe to say that any data source is "complete", it's hard to imagine that there's a native or naturalized plant in the United States or Canada that isn't listed here.

This database is invaluable for anyone interested in gardening with native plants. Want to know whether a plant is native in your area? Just look it up at the PLANTS Database. A majority of the plants listed, including pretty much all the common ones, come with maps showing you where they are naturalized (that is, have escaped from cultivation) and where they are native, along with a wealth of other standardized, well-sourced information.

Take Pacific bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa) as an example: If I look it up on the database, I will find a map showing that it is "present" (that is, naturalized) in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, and Massachusetts. If I click on "view native status", I see that the plant is native in all those states and the one Canadian province as well.

Also available on this page are photos of D. formosa, information about the plant's status (at risk, considered invasive, that sort of thing), and a link to the plant's "Conservation Plant Characteristics" sheet. This standardized form contains about 100 items, including active growth period, bloom period, flower color, propagation requirements, growth requirements, and commercial uses.

But -- let's be honest -- the Conservation Plant Characteristics page is designed for plant wonks. Want something that's more gardener friendly? At the bottom of the top page for D. formosa are links to other websites that are better written and easier to use. For instance, at the Native Plant Database at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center you will find information on how to grow Pacific bleeding heart in a garden and also on its wildlife uses and other benefits in the landscape, all written in gardener-ese.

The information made available through the PLANTS Database is slightly different for each plant. Whereas some plants have no web page of their own, you can at least see how even the most unusual plants are related to other plants in the database. And there is plenty of information for the more common plants. Almost 800 plants come with plain English fact sheets or plant guides that provide much of the information any gardener would want to know.

So for instance, if you look up Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), you can click on a link to get a two-page fact sheet in pdf format with brief information on alternate names, uses (including landscaping and wildlife), conservation uses, appearance, distribution, growing conditions, and even varieties (known as cultivars) that have unusual colors and other features and are grown specifically for the nursery trade. The plant guide for Purple coneflower is four pages long and includes information on propagation. Both the fact sheet and the guide are written in lay language.

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is one of nearly 800 plants for which the PLANTS Database provides detailed information in the form of fact sheets and/or plant guides.

I could probably go on forever about this database, but the best way for you to learn about it is to play around with it yourself. Here are just a few more suggestions for ways to use the database:

Want to know what plants are native where you live? Use the State Search function to generate lists of native plants for your state or province. So for instance, when I searched for Nova Scotia, where I live, I generated a list of almost 8,000 plants that are native here.

Interested in finding out whether any member of a specific genus is native in your area? Use State Search to generate a list of plants native to your area, then scroll to the species name you're interested in. So for example, if I generate a list of plants native to Nova Scotia, then scroll to the Dicentras, I find that whereas D. formosa isn't native here, D. cucullaria (aka Dutchman's breeches) is native in this province. There isn't much information about Dutchman's breeches at the USDA website, but that's not a problem: By using the links at the bottom of the page I can easily get all the gardening information I need from sources such as the Kemper Center for Home Gardening and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

I can use the PLANTS database to find out what plants are native in my state or province. Even if the PLANTS database doesn't have much information on a specific plant that I'm interested in, it will probably provide links to websites that do have good information on the plant. The photo above shows Dutchman's breeches (D. cucullaria), which is native where I live even though its close relative Pacific bleeding heart (D. formosa) is not. The copyright-free photo was taken by Jennifer Anderson @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database.

Curious about the status of a plant you're thinking of adding to your garden? Check it out in the database. For instance, if I look up Dicentra spectabilis, the common garden bleeding heart, I will find that it is not native in North America but has naturalized in several states. This tells me that I should check the USDA page to make sure that it's not considered noxious anywhere (it's not) and the Invasive Plants of Canada and Invasive Plants of the Eastern United States websites to make sure that it's not invasive (it's not) before deciding to introduce it into my garden.

Maps at the PLANTS Database site tell me that Common bleeding heart (D. spectabilis) is not native anywhere in North America but has naturalized in a few states. Further research confirmed that although the plant can naturalize, this old-fashioned "cottage garden" plant, which is very popular with hummingbirds, is not considered invasive or noxious anywhere.

All in all, this database is a great resource. If you're shopping for plants this spring, it wouldn't hurt to assign one of your browser tabs to this site.

Pollinating the spring ephemerals

Photo of Dicentra cucullaria by Catie Drew.


IF YOU LIVE IN ANY AREA THAT IS NATURALLY WOODED, the first native plants to come up in spring are those known as spring emphemerals. These small wildflowers take advantage of that brief period in early spring when the soil warms but deciduous trees have not yet leafed out. During this small window of time, they appear and flower before fading back into the soil again as their woodland habitat is engulfed in shade.

During this time, the spring ephemerals can't just sit there and look pretty--though they most certainly do. Their critical task is to attract pollinators so that they can set seed and ensure the survival of their species.

Getting pollinated is pretty difficult for the spring ephemerals because they can bloom only when the forest canopy is still open but can be pollinated only when it's warm enough for insects to be able to fly. If those two seasons don't coincide, they won't be able to get pollinated unless they are able to self-pollinate.

Because they do have such a tricky time getting pollinated, most of the spring ephemerals are generalists--they can be pollinated by a wide variety of insects. However some of them are adapted to being pollinated by specific insects. Trillium, for instance, has a distinct smell that attracts flies. Dicentra cucullaria, aka Dutchmen's breeches, is dependent on queen bumblebees for pollination. Some of the orchids are also very specialized.

One interesting adaptation is found in Cornus canadensis, a low-growing member of the dogwood family. The flowers of this plant are so eager to be pollinated that when an insect lands on one, it explodes with a shower of pollen that covers the insect in golden dust.

Most of the pollinating insects that visit spring ephemerals also go to the early spring flowering trees and shrubs, incidentally. Willows are especially popular because of their huge production of pollen. Maple flowers and flowering Ericaceous shrubs also seem to get a lot of attention.

But the bottom line is that they all need each other. The interactions are very complicated and poorly understood, and we don't really know which native plants and/or pollinators are essential to the survival of which other native plants and/or pollinators. All we really know is that they're adapted to each other, often in very precise ways. One of many concerns about global climate change is that even slight changes in delicate, vulnerable relationships between species such as these could have unforseeable but monumental effects.

Meet the Natives: Bleeding Heart

THE NATIVE BLEEDING HEARTS ARE UNASSUMING COUNTRY COUSINS to the common garden bleeding heart, Dicentra spectabilis. The latter, which is native to Eastern Asia, grows far larger than the natives and has been popular with gardeners going back to the mid-19th century in Europe and for hundreds of years in China and Japan.

The smaller, native Dicentras are equally charming once you get to know them. These members of the Fumitory family (which also includes Corydalis spp.) are low growing, with delicate, fernlike foliage and a tendency to naturalize. The petals fuse into interesting shapes, typically pink (sometimes white) hearts with the stamens forming a teardrop beneath--hence the common name bleeding heart. They usually flower in spring and tend to be popular with bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. In my experience the Dicentras also get along famously with other plants; see how, in the photo at top, the little bleeding heart is cozying right up to the native strawberry, with its grey-green ferny foliage setting off the brighter green and solid leaves of the Fragaria.

The photo at top mostly likely shows D. formosa, or Pacific bleeding heart. This plant was given to me by a neighbor, who dug it up in a relative's garden. If it's what I think it is, it's native to the West Coast, and has probably reached me here in the Northeast by the grace of many generations of gardeners who have passed it from one garden to another all across the continent.

Technically, this plant isn't native here. But I'm willing to overlook that because it's not particularly invasive and I have such pleasant memories of growing it in the West. The photo to the left shows a scene from a garden I designed and installed with my friend Brett Johnson; we called this area the "hummingbird glen" because we filled it with plants that appeal to hummingbirds, including D. formosa. The greenery immediately surrounding the bench consists almost entirely of a combination of native ferns with native bleeding hearts. (A photo of this same scene appeared with this article in the Seattle Times.) D. formosa has become quite popular in the nursery trade, and several cultivars are available. "Alba" has pure white flowers, and there are also several that have dark reddish pink blooms.

Warning: According to the Native Plant Information Network at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, all parts of this plant are toxic. The website states that the plant causes minor skin irritation when touched, but considerably more severe symptoms with greater exposure. Now, I've worked with this plant for years and have never noticed any symptoms whatever. But proceed with caution.

The photo at the top of this entry also could be D. canadensis, which possesses the oddball common name of "squirrel corn," presumably because of the yellow, pealike, tuberous roots. This plant has white to pale pink flowers and is native in Ontario and Quebec in Canada and in the United States from Maine to Virginia and as far west as Wisconsin. It is also said to be fragrant (which is one of the reasons why I think the plant in my garden must be D. formosa).

Another of the great native bleeding hearts--and a slightly unusual one--is D. cucullaria, which has white and yellow blooms that are shaped not like hearts but like upside-down pantaloons. Hence the common name, Dutchman's breeches. Apparently, the flowers of D. cucullaria are quite variable, however, and so the plant can often look a lot like D. canadensis, to which it is very closely related. However, D. cucullaria is not fragrant. This is the only Dicentra that is actually native where I live (insert sad face here), being native to the Maritimes as well as Ontario and Quebec in Canada, and all the way from Maine to Washington down to Tennessee in the United States. Western populations of the plant have apparently been separated from the eastern populations for at least 1,000 years, so there are physical differences between plants from the West Coast and those from the East, and some botanists regard them as different species.

Finally, D. eximia aka wild bleeding heart or plumy bleeding heart or eastern bleeding heart has small, deep pink heart-shaped flowers and is found "along the Appalachians from North Carolina and Tennessee to Maryland and Pennsylvania" according to the Flora of North America. This reference goes on to report that wild bleeding heart is frequently used in gardens and sometimes escapes outside the area to which it is native, but evidently has not become truly naturalized beyond it. Patented hybrids of D. eximia and D. formosa can be found in nurseries. The Native Plant Information Network at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center praises it as a garden plant because it has a long blooming season but warns that it can spread so profusely that it will smother other plants.

Give the Dicentras part shade (high shade or dappled shade is ideal), rich soil, and moisture, and then stand back and be prepared to watch them spread. You can usually extend the bloom time by providing supplemental water, but this is not necessary as the plants will simply go dormant if not watered.

Native Americans used this plant medicinally.