BLEEDING HEART

any of several species of Dicentra, a genus of herbaceous flowering plants of the fumitory family (Fumariaceae). The old garden favourite is the Japanese D. spectabilis, widespread for its small rosy-red and white, heart-shaped flowers dangling from arching stems about 60 centimetres (2 feet) tall. There is also a white form, D. spectabilis alba. The deeply cut leaf segments are larger than those of other cultivated species of Dicentra, such as the shorter eastern, or wild, bleeding heart (D. eximia), which produces sprays of small pink flowers from April to September in the Allegheny mountain region of eastern North America. The Pacific, or western, bleeding heart (D. formosa) of mountain woods, which ranges from California to British Columbia, has several varieties of garden interest.