Bloodroot is an herbaceous perennial forest dweller. The rhizome is dark brownish-red, filled with an orange-red juice that exudes from even the slightest injury. The broken rhizome looks like a severed finger, bleeding the alkaloid-rich juice that gives the plant its name, its medicinal activity and also provides the easiest method of identification. The rhizome occurs in jointed sections that branch freely, producing transparent, matted, amber-orange roots from the underside and scaled, tumescent buds from the growing tips.

In the early spring, each rosy bud gives rise to a single leaf and flowering stalk that emerge in coordination. The leaf is rolled around the flowering stalk, sheathing and protecting it as it pierces through the forest debris, unfolding and expanding as the flower matures. The leaves are round-palmate, deeply lobed and grayish-green in color, with orange veins on the underside. The flower is white and waxy, yet devoid of nectar, with eight or more petals and golden anthers. This self-fertile flower lasts only a few days before giving way to the elongated, pointed, peapod-like, two-chambered seed capsule. The leaves and seed capsule continue to enlarge as the season progresses. Eventually, the swollen capsule splits apart, scattering seed near the base of the plant. The seed is shiny and mahogany-colored, attached to a worm-like, fatty protuberance known as a "raphe."

Forest ants consider the raphe a delicacy, and carry the seed to their underground nests, eventually eating the germination-inhibiting raphe and abandoning the seed in a pile of black dirt or unused passage. In this way the bloodroot is effectively disseminated.

The native range of bloodroot is extensive, including all eastern and Midwestern states, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Rocky Mountains. Bloodroot prefers to grow in a mixed hardwood forest, occupying sites in the deep shade or areas of open woodland where dappled sunlight reaches the forest floor. Plants occur lodged in moss on top of limestone outcrops, but also thrive in mulchy soils on hillsides or in bottom lands.

The preferred soils are humus or clay, well-mulched with rotting leaves. The ideal acidity range is slightly acid, between pH 5.5 and 6.5. Although a certain amount of sand in the soil matrix is well-tolerated, pure sand soils are not.

Bloodroot prefers a climate that provides adequate moisture, and is subject to very early dormancy in a drought year. However the rhizomes tend to rot in swampy ground, despite their heavy arsenal of alkaloidal sap, and they tend to crawl on or just below the ground surface in order to avoid overly damp conditions. Bloodroot tends to grow in patches. Given ideal conditions, a single plant left to spread by root and seed will make an impressive colony in a few years' time. Bloodroot is considered an at risk plant.

Bloodroot seed is best sown as soon as possible after it is ripe, in well-drained soil in forest nursery beds, in the shade garden or in shaded flats. Sow seed ¼ inch deep in close furrows, or broadcast the seed, press it in and cover with a thin layer of soil. Finish with a layer of fine mulch, which helps keep the soil from drying out through summer and winter. You will achieve the best results with relatively little watering during the germination phase.

Seedlings are best grown without disturbing them for two years, until they produce small rhizomes. Transplant to a finished spacing of about six inches. Transplanting is best done in fall or early spring.

Large clumps of bloodroot rhizomes boast many spreading branches that separate easily at the joints. These are natural transplants that may be broken apart by hand. Transplants tend to rot back from the broken end before they root in and find balance in their new location. The more they are injured, the greater the potential for rot. The transplants are best planted barely below the soil surface, with the buds pointing up. Clumps of roots that hang down from the transplant should be spread out and dug in as deeply as possible in the underlying soil.