WILD FLOWERS OF M.W YORK 39 



Arum Family 



A r a c e a e 



Jack-in-the-pulpit; Indian Turnip 



Arisaema triphyllum (Linnaeus) Torrey 



Plate 3 



A perennial herb, 1 to 3 feet tall, from a rounded, acrid corm. Leaves 

 one or two, nearly erect, and exceeding the scape, three-foliate, the seg- 

 ments or leaflets pale green beneath, ovate, acute, rounded or pointed at 

 the base, 3 to 8 inches long, 1 to 3 inches wide, unfolding with the flowers. 

 Flowers dioecious, borne on the basal part of the club-shaped spadix, which 

 is naked, blunt and green or purple above; spathe green and purple-striped, 

 curving in a broad flap over the top of the spadix, long pointed, sometimes 

 whitish with green stripes or almost uniformly greenish. The crowded 

 ovaries of the pistillate flowers ripen into a cluster of bright-red, shining, 

 globose berries. 



A common plant of moist woods and thickets, flowering from early 

 spring until June. The fruit ripens in July, and in late summer the leaves 

 frequently wither and die, leaving the stalks of bright-red berries con- 

 spicuous objects in the woods. 



Two closely related species are sometimes recognized, Arisaema 

 pusillum (Peck) Nash, with leaves green beneath, a cylindrical spadix 

 and spathe deep brown to almost black in color ; Arisaema stew- 

 ardsonii Britton, with a conspicuously fluted spathe which is whitish 

 below and green or green-striped toward the tip, but otherwise resembling 

 A. pusillum. 



The Green Dragon or Dragon-root (Arisaema dracontium 

 (Linnaeus) Schott) (figure II) has solitary leaves divided into five to seven- 

 teen segments, and a narrow greenish or whitish, long-pointed spathe 

 enwrapping the spadix, the upper part of which tapers into a slender 

 appendage exserted 1 to 7 inches beyond the spathe. The mature berries 

 are reddish-orange in color. This plant is less abundant than the Jack-in- 

 the-pulpit, and much less conspicuous. 



