March brings wildflowers

March is the month when woodland flowers begin showing their beauty in Southeast Missouri. Within the next few weeks trilliums, spring beauty, Dutchman's breeches and other small wildflowers of the woods begin blooming.

The flower I photographed here is called bloodroot. It is native to North America. It might grow to about a foot tall, but the one here was only about 5 inches tall. It was growing with a small colony of about 15 plants of which seven had gorgeous white petals bursting at the tops of single stems.

The bloodroot has red-orange sap that is poisonous to humans, although animals such as deer and groundhogs will add it to their diet. The spike sticking up to the right of the flower is a bloodroot seed pod.