About Lachnanthes caroliana (Lam.) Dandy
Lachnanthes is a genus of monocotyledonous plants in the bloodwort family that holds only one species: Lachnanthes caroliana (also sometimes written as Lachnanthes caroliniana). This species is commonly known as Carolina redroot or bloodroot. It is native to eastern North America, ranging from southeastern Nova Scotia, particularly the Molega Lake area, and Massachusetts in the north, southward to Florida and Cuba, and west along the Gulf of Mexico to Louisiana. It has also been recorded growing on an island in the western Caribbean, off the coast of Honduras. This plant favors wet, acidic, typically sandy soils, which limits its natural occurrence to various wetland habitats including bogs, pinelands, hammocks, and pocosins. Its common names come from the plant's characteristic red roots and rhizomes. Its flowers, which are made up of six pale yellow tepals, bloom from mid to late summer. Sometimes, this plant grows as a significant weed in commercial cranberry bogs.
