Arum maculatum
LORDS AND LADIES, SNAKESHEAD, CUCKOO PINT
SKU: 2260-010
Arum maculatum is native across most of Europe, as well as Eastern Turkey and the Caucasus. The leaves of A. maculatum appear in April-May , and are 7 to 20 cm long. These are followed by the flowers borne on a poker-shaped inflorescence called a spadix, which is partially enclosed in a pale green spathe or leaf-like hood. The spathe can be up to 25 cm high and the fruiting spike which follows later in the season may be up to 5 cm. The leaves are purple-spotted.
Above the male flowers is a ring of hairs forming an insect trap. Insects, especially owl-midges Psychoda phalaenoides, are attracted to the spadix by its faecal odour and a temperature up to 15 C warmer than the ambient temperature. The insects are trapped beneath the ring of hairs and are dusted with pollen by the male flowers before escaping and carrying the pollen to the spadices of other plants, where they pollinate the female flowers. The spadix may also be yellow, but purple is the more common.
In autumn, the lower ring of (female) flowers forms a cluster of bright red, berries up to 5 cm long which remain after the spathe and other leaves have withered away. These attractive red to orange berries are extremely poisonous.
The root-tuber may be very big, and in mature specimens, the tuber may be as much as 400 mm below ground level.
Arum maculatum is also known as cuckoo pint or cuckoo-pint in the British Isles and is named thus in Nicholas Culpeper's famous 17th-century herbal. This is a name it shares with Arum italicum (Italian lords-and-ladies), the other native British Arum.
It grows in woodland areas and riversides and in partly shaded spots.
Type: Hardy perennial
Hardiness zones: 5-9
Height: 12-18"
Seeds per packet: 10
Note: Ornamental use only. These seeds and/or plants may be poisonous.
Arum maculatum is native across most of Europe, as well as Eastern Turkey and the Caucasus. The leaves of A. maculatum appear in April-May , and are 7 to 20 cm long. These are followed by the flowers borne on a poker-shaped inflorescence called a spadix, which is partially enclosed in a pale green spathe or leaf-like hood. The spathe can be up to 25 cm high and the fruiting spike which follows later in the season may be up to 5 cm. The leaves are purple-spotted.
Above the male flowers is a ring of hairs forming an insect trap. Insects, especially owl-midges Psychoda phalaenoides, are attracted to the spadix by its faecal odour and a temperature up to 15 C warmer than the ambient temperature. The insects are trapped beneath the ring of hairs and are dusted with pollen by the male flowers before escaping and carrying the pollen to the spadices of other plants, where they pollinate the female flowers. The spadix may also be yellow, but purple is the more common.
In autumn, the lower ring of (female) flowers forms a cluster of bright red, berries up to 5 cm long which remain after the spathe and other leaves have withered away. These attractive red to orange berries are extremely poisonous.
The root-tuber may be very big, and in mature specimens, the tuber may be as much as 400 mm below ground level.
Arum maculatum is also known as cuckoo pint or cuckoo-pint in the British Isles and is named thus in Nicholas Culpeper's famous 17th-century herbal. This is a name it shares with Arum italicum (Italian lords-and-ladies), the other native British Arum.
It grows in woodland areas and riversides and in partly shaded spots.
Type: Hardy perennial
Hardiness zones: 5-9
Height: 12-18"
Seeds per packet: 10
Note: Ornamental use only. These seeds and/or plants may be poisonous.
