Dicentra formosa

Species of flowering plants in the poppy family Papaveraceae

Dicentra formosa (western, wild or Pacific bleeding heart) is a flowering plant with fern like leaves and an inflorescence of drooping pink, purple, yellow or cream flowers native to the Pacific Coast of North America.

Pacific bleeding heart is a perennial herbaceous plant. Its leaves are three to four times divided and fern like, growing from a brittle rhizome at the base of the plant. It grows to tall by wide. The flowers are pink, red, or white and heart shaped and bloom in clusters of 5 to 15 at the top of leafless, fleshy stems above the leaves from mid spring to autumn, with peak flowering in spring. The four petals are attached at the base. The two outer petals form a pouch at the base and curve outwards at the tips. The two inner petals are perpendicular to the outer petals and connected at the tip. The Pacific bleeding heart is frequently confused with the fringed bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia) and sold under that name. The fringed bleeding heart has narrower flowers and longer, more curved outer petal tips. D. formosa is related to Lamprocapnos spectabilis, another popular plant called "bleeding heart", which was formerly placed in the same genus.

The Pacific bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa subsp. formosa) was first noted by Europeans when the Scottish surgeon and naturalist Archibald Menzies encountered it on the Vancouver Expedition. Menzies collected seed in 1792 in Nootka Sound, and gave it to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in 1795. From there, seed made its way into cultivation in Europe. It apparently was not cultivated in the United States until 1835, when William Kenrick began selling the plant in Boston. The subspecies oregana was first cultivated around 1932, when it was offered by Borsch and Sons in Oregon, but is not grown very often.