DORCAS APPIAAH

Dicentra canadensis
squirrel corn
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Symbol:   DICA  
Group:   Dicot  
Family:   Fumariaceae  
Duration:   Perennial  
Growth Habit:   Forb/herb  
Native Status: L48   N
 
CAN  N

See U.S. county distributions (when available) by clicking on the map or the
linked states below:
USA (CT, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, VA, VT, WI,
WV), CAN (ON, QC)
 
 
Classification:
Dicentra Canadensis (Goldie) Walp.

Click on a scientific name below to expand it in the PLANTS Classification Report.

   
Kingdom Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass Magnoliidae
Order Papaverales
Family Fumariaceae – Fumitory family
Genus Dicentra Bernh. – bleeding heart
Species Dicentra Canadensis (Goldie) Walp. – squirrel corn
 Dicentra cucullaria

Squirrel Corn is most likely to be confused with Dutchman's

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913.
An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States
and Canada, Second Edition.
Breeches. However the flower spurs of Dutchman's Breeches are
elongate and project on either side of the flower.
Squirrel Corn (Dicentra Canadensis)

Identification: Flowers white to cream-white, heart-shaped with

flower spurs rounded, short, not projecting. Flowers in a small
spike, hanging downward. Leaves heavily, but finely, divided into
elongate segments, rounded in shape. Roots appearing like grains o
yellow corn (hence the name). Plant 6 to 12 inches in height.

Distribution: Throughout most of eastern North America.

Habitat: Squirrel Corn is found in moist, rich forest and woodland

areas.

Description

Low, stemless perennial. Rich open woods, especially northward. Nova Scotia to Minnesota and Washington,
southward to North Carolina. Abundant in the ravines of northern Ohio. April, May.

Roots

Subterranean shoots bear scattered grain-like tubers resembling yellow peas

Scape
Five to ten inches high, bearing a simple raceme of flowers.
Leaves
Delicate, grayish green, thrice compound, finely cut, borne on long, slender stems which rise from the root.

Flowers
Borne in a nodding raceme on a scape five to ten inches high, irregular, white, tipped with greenish rose
color, and slightly fragrant.

Calyx
Of two small, scale-like sepals.

Corolla
Four petals in two pairs, somewhat cohering into a flattened, heart-shaped, irregular flower; the outer pair
of petals extended into two short and rounded spurs; the crested inner petals project conspicuously and
protect the slightly protruding stamens.

Stamens
Six, in two sets; filaments of each set slightly united.

Pistil
One; style slender; stigma two-lobed.

Fruit
Long, slender pod; ten to twenty seeds.

Pollinated by bumblebees and bee-like flies. Nectar-bearing. Anthers mature before the stigmas.

DEFINITIONS

Raceme: a simple inflorescence (as in the lily of the valley ) in which the flowers are borne on
short stalks of about equal length at equal distances along an elongated axis and open in succession
toward the apex

Subterranean: being or operating under the surface of the earth