Jack-in-the-Pulpit 



Arisaema Triphyllum 



NANCY SURETTE 



Reprinted from the Vernal Equinox, 

 1999, issue of Grunite Trowel, a 

 Master Gardener publication. 



I was just cleaning out some cabi- 

 nets and ran across a report I did 

 on the Jack-in-the-pulpit for the 

 Flora of New England class at the 

 Garden in the Woods in Framingham 

 I did some years ago. I remember 

 choosing this plant for my research be- 

 cause I thought it was an odd-lookin 

 piece of vegetation that always made me 

 giggle. 



For starters, as part of the Arum family, it 

 has a hooded spathe flower (pulpit) and a slen 

 der spadix (Jack) in the middle. It is a monocot with 

 distinctly parallel veins. Like its relative, the skunk 

 cabbage, it emits a rancid odor to attract insects for 

 pollination, but I generally do not detect an odor 

 while walking in the woods. Then there is this odd 

 characteristic of changing its sex from year to year. 

 More on that later. 



This is a wonderful woodland plant to observe 

 through the season. You should have plenty to choose 

 from if you have rich, moist, acid shade. Select a 

 healthy plant and watch it change from week to week. 

 The plants first spear their way to the surface in late 

 April by pushing forth in a tight pointed curl to break 

 through the soil. Within a few days or so, they unfurl 

 their leaves and expose the hooded flower. 



Not infrequently, some pulpits will quickly acquire 

 a nasty-looking rust disease which looks like sprinkled 

 mustard powder. These plants will wither and die and 

 should be removed . Not to worry: rich woodlands 

 will produce many healthy ones too. I have often 

 come across large plants with stalks almost two inches 

 in diameter and at least two feet tall. 



The pulpits will flower for several weeks, then the 

 vegetation will die back, exposing a swollen spadix. 



Peel back the outer layer 

 and you will find a tight 

 grouping of green seeds. 

 Watch your woodland floor 

 change from green to red as the 

 seeds mature in the fall, giving you 

 visual interest and food for the birds. 

 Now about that sex thing. 

 The sex of the Arisaema tryphillum 

 may change several times throughout 

 its life. The plant doesn't flower at all 

 the first year, but as it matures, it pro- 

 duces male flowers first. If the plant be- 

 comes robust in later years, it switches to 

 producing female flowers. At this point the 

 sex may change from year to year depending on 

 growing conditions. The vigor of the plant in the 

 previous year is the best indicator of the likely sex of 

 the plant of the next season. Male flowers appear after 

 poor years, and females after good years. Generally a 

 female plant has two sets of trifoliate leaves. The only 

 way to be sure is to take the flower apart and to look 

 at the pistol and stamens. 



It's not the smartest plant to munch on in the wild 

 Eating it raw is poisonous, but the Native Americans 

 used to boil the corms and tolerate the peppery taste 

 caused by the calcium oxolate crystals, hence the com- 

 mon name of "Indian turnip." 



This is a common native with an uncommon 

 lifestyle. I think I'll just admire the plants through the 

 year and stick with fiddleheads for sustenance. 



Jack-in-the-Pulpit, illustration by Roger Tory Peterson 

 from A Field Guide to Wildflowers, Roger Tory 



Peterson and Margaret McKenny, Houghton Mifflin 



Company, Boston, Massachusetts. 



Nancy Surette, principal of Seedling-Naturescapes, a 

 landscape design/consulting firm in Windham, NH, 

 can be reached at 6oy8gy/^04. 



yjSHJJWi 1999 



