While out walking at Miracle Beach Provincial Park yesterday I was extremely fortunate to find a single blooming Pink Heart-Cockle (Dicentra cardii). This plant is red-listed in British Columbia and it is rare to find it in flower. It has a brief “blink and you miss it” blooming period in late March/early April after which it withers away. One of the reasons why the provincial park was established at Miracle Beach was to protect this sensitive and rare plant.

The Pink Heart-Cockle has beautiful lacy blue-green foliage and striking pink pendant cockleshell-like flowers that are suspended from the stem like miniature lockets. This rare plant has a very restricted range and all records have been from coastal Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Look for it at this time of year in mature coastal Douglas-fir/Hemlock forests growing in well rotted wood. Protocols for inventorying rare plants can be found at eFlora. Any sightings of the Pink Heart-Cockle should be documented and reported to the Conservation Data Centre.

Update:

For those having difficulty finding additional information about the Pink Heart-Cockle on-line please look a little closer at the image of the flower and note the date of this post.