Dutchman's Breeches

Dicentra cucullaria

Dutchman's Breeches earns its name from the flowers: paired white petals flared upward like tiny pairs of pantaloons hung out to dry. They dangle from arching stems over finely cut, blue-green foliage in April, creating one of the most distinctive silhouettes in the spring woodland. The whole plant is small, delicate, and precise. the kind of thing you stop to look at closely every time you pass. Like all spring ephemerals, it disappears entirely by early summer, making it ideal for pairing with shade perennials that fill in later. It's primarily pollinated by long-tongued bumblebee queens that have just emerged and are the only insects with tongues long enough to reach the nectar. You'll often see them working these flowers methodically on cool April mornings before anything else in the garden is open.