03.25.20 Elfin Laundry Lines

One of my favorite Spring ephemerals is Dutchman’s Breeches, Dicentra cucullaria. Such an unusually-shaped flower! It really just doesn’t make any sense at first glance. Described by most folks as looking like a pair of pantaloons hanging on the line. Its four petals hide two stamens and a pistil. They are difficult to access, designed to accommodate long-tongued bumble bees. Other insects occasionally just eat right through the petals foiling any chance at pollination. Once pollinated the seeds are collected by ants attracted to their fleshy coverings. Interestingly there is a parallel population of this Blue Ridge Mountain flower in the Columbia Basin. It is thought that one large population was split about a 1000 years ago by environmental changes. The plant is believed to have been collected by John Bartram on his 18C travels and shared with England’s Chelsea Physic Garden. The reported meaning of the two scientific names are: Dicentra, “two spurred” and cucullaria “hood-like”.

Illustration in Curtis’ Botanical Magazine, 1801, by S. T. Edwards.