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Bleeding Heart
Dicentra formosa
Bleeding Heart is a lush green ground cover with delicate pink "hearts" hanging in small clusters. The pod-like capsules contain small black seeds with white oil-rich appendages. Ants are attracted to the oil, thus helping disperse the seeds. Bleeding Heart prefers moist forests, ravines and streambanks.
Native Americans used this plant as a medicine - sometimes for curing worms or as a toothache medicine. As with many medicinals, Bleeding Heart contains toxins and has been known to cause sickness and death to cattle who have eaten large quantities of this herb.
