Bleeding hearts and tears of pain
While we sat outside the cafe at Cloudehill Garden on a hot January morning, Lynda pointed out this intriguing yellow-flowered creeper behind my head. It was struggling a little, so I wondered if it was always a rather whispy, emphemeral kind of plant. Seems not when it is in its element, a slightly cooler, wetter climate I suspect, such as UK gardens or its native home in the high-altitude forests of Asia, from India to China and northern Thailand. It's called Dactylicapnos scandens , or Yellow Bleeding Heart Vine , and we used to have one scrambling through the undergrowth in sheltered part of our Southern China Collection at Melbourne Gardens. Sometimes you'll see this species included in Dicentra , a genus including other species also called 'Bleeding Heart' (and of course that common name is applied to other unrelated plants with leaves that are red on one side). Both Dicentra and Dactylicapnos are in the family Papaveraceae, better known for the red (and other
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