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 on the red list in British Columbia and is rarely in flower. It has a brief “blink and you miss it” blooming period in late March/early April after which it withers away. Miracle Beach was established as a provinical park to protect this sensitive and rare plant.

 

The Pink Heart-Cockle has beautiful lacy blue-green foliage. The striking pink pendant cockleshell-like flowers that dangle 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 are available at eFlora. Document any sightings of the Pink Heart-Cockle and report them to the Conservation Data Centre.

Update:

For those having difficulty finding additional information about this rare flower on-line please look a little closer at the image of the flower and note the date of this post. It reliably blooms only on April 1st.