Worts in the woods

Liverwort

I have a wide variety of plants in my garden with "wort" as the suffix.  Even though they look nothing alike, I've always assumed they were in the same family since they all shared the same suffix.  Before writing about all my "worts" however, I decided to do a little research.

To my delight, I learned that "wort" is an old English word meaning either "plant" or "root" (depending on what source material I read).  Either way,  identifying a plant as a "wort" is merely a general designation.  What it does tell us is that any plant identified as a "wort" is one that has been associated with gardens for a very long time.

I do have two "worts" in my woodland garden that are in the same family; a liverwort and a bloodwort, which are both in the same family as buttercups (ranunculus).  Both of these native woodland species have white flowers that appear on leafless stems before the leaves come up so it is always a sweet surprise to see them in the spring.

Bloodwort

 

Bloodwort is also known as bloodroot because its root sap is reddish in color (I read this--did not dig it up to verify it).  It's Latin name is sanguineria, which is why I shall continue to call it bloodwort.  The flowers are quite large for a woodland flowers, about 2 inches in diameter, with a sort of daisy-like appearance. 

Liverwort (hepatica) blossoms are only about a half inch in diameter so they are easy to miss in the woods.  The common name is derived from the shape of the leaves; three lobes on each leaf like the liver organ.   I confess that I harvested my liverwort from the banks of a stream along one of our horse trails.  I have rules when I take plants from their native habitat--always leave the parent plant; take only a small specimen; and never tell anyone where it came from.