The patient pollinator: Â A bee waits for the flower to open. These pictures were taken at lunchtime. Â With the cool weather, the flowers have been opening only in the afternoons.
This specific patch of Bloodroot  consistently  staggers its blooming flowers over  a two week period.  Since the Sanguine Root Environmental Restoration Team has removed the thick matte of the invasive exotic Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle), this patch has tripled in size. In the spring of 2007, this patch was only a few flowers.
It was a cold morning, but the sun was out. At ten the Bloodroot was still tightly closed up. Â After lunch, the flowers were opening in a festive manner. Â They really like the sun. Their overall location is dependent on dappled shade after the trees leaf out. The leaves cannot survive in the full sun. This is truly a forest flower, blooming in the sun of the early spring, before the trees leaf out, but photosynthesizing in the late spring and summer, even through the fall, in the dappled shade of oaks and hickories.
This patch is on the other side of the path. Bloodroot is a highly variable species, and the deeply incised leaves of the specimens of this patch are much different than the leaves of other patches in the immediate area. Â The other patches have more rounded lobes on their leaves.