Turkey-corn

Dicentra canadensis (Goldie) Walp. (Papaveraceae, subfamily Fumarioideae), squirrel corn or turkey corn, is a delicate spring-ephemeral perennial herb 15-30 cm tall, native to rich deciduous forests of eastern North America from southern Ontario and Quebec south to North Carolina and Tennessee. It grows from a cluster of small, yellow, kernel-like underground tubers resembling grains of corn, which give the species both its common names. Leaves are basal, long-petioled, glaucous and finely tripinnately divided into narrow oblong segments, closely resembling those of D. cucullaria but more bluish. The leafless flowering scape rises above the foliage and bears a one-sided arching raceme of 4-8 nodding flowers. Each flower is bilaterally symmetrical, white to cream tinged with pink-purple at the rounded apex, with two short rounded inflated spurs at the base and a strong sweet hyacinth-like fragrance. The fruit is a slender oblong capsule containing several shiny black seeds bearing fleshy elaiosomes dispersed by ants.