Dutchman's-breeches

Dicentra cucullaria is a delicate spring ephemeral herb of the Papaveraceae family (formerly Fumariaceae), arising 15 to 30 centimetres tall from a cluster of small, pink to white, scale-like bulblets aggregated on a short rhizome. The leaves are all basal, long-petioled, soft and bluish-green, two- to three-times ternately compound and finely dissected into narrow lobes, giving an almost ferny appearance. A leafless flowering scape of similar height bears a one-sided, arching raceme of four to ten distinctive white flowers tinged with pale yellow at the tip; each flower is 1.5 to 2 centimetres long, with two outer petals fused into a pair of inflated, divergent spurs that resemble an inverted pair of pantaloons, giving rise to the common name. Flowering occurs in early to mid-spring before the canopy closes, and the plant goes dormant by early summer. Native to rich, moist deciduous woodlands of eastern North America and a disjunct area in the Pacific Northwest.