"Georgia O'Keeffe would so approve," writes buildingadesert, who posted this masterful image in our Flickr Pool in early June of this year.

Indeed; for while the close-up of the flower itself would have pleased the Wisconsin-born artist, I suspect that the flower's shape would have gone some way toward capturing her imagination as well.

The particular family to which today's featured plant, Dicentra uniflora, belongs remains a matter of some contention: Fumariaceae is variously treated either as a distinct and discrete family, or, under the alternative appellation of Fumarioideae, as a subfamily of Papaveraceae (the poppy family). Either way, the relevant group—of which there are 19 genera and 450 species in the flora of North America—consists of flowering plants, most of which are annual and perennial herbs.

Dicentra, which includes the bleeding hearts, counts about 20 species among its numbers, the majority of which are native to Asia and North America. Species generally put forth bilaterally symmetrical flowers equipped with swollen or basally spurred outer petals along with inner petals that are oblong to oblanceolate in shape.

Dicentra uniflora, commonly known as the longhorn steer's head, is an herbaceous perennial plant native to the rocky, sandy, and somewhat elevated soils of North America's western half (between 1600 and 3700 m. in elevation). The variously pink, purple, or white flowers—the curved horn-like shape of which inspires the plant's common name—are borne singly on erect, leafy stems up to 10 cm. in length. The plant produces an ovate capsule fruit that measures about 12 millimeters in diameter.

(Original Image)