Description
Arisaema triphyllum
CT RG DR P
Soil: Fertile
Moisture: Average to Wet
Light: Part Sun to Shade
Plant Height: 1 to 2 feet
Plant Width: 1 to 1.5 feet
Pests: None
Landscape Value: Excellent for shady woodland gardens. Good for shady rain gardens.
An intriguing and easy-to-grow spring ephemeral! The blossom is a large, cylindrical, hooded flower, green in color with brown stripes, which occurs on a separate stalk at the same height as the plant’s large leaves. The distinctive “Jack-in-the-Pulpit” formation grows beneath the leaves. A cluster of bright red berries appears in late summer on female plants. It thrives under a variety of conditions, but grows most vigorously in moist, shady, seasonally wet locations. Tolerates heavy shade and black walnut. In winter, plants appreciate a thick cover of leaf mulch.
The unique flower consists of a spadix (“Jack”) of tiny green-purple flowers surrounded by a sheath-like spathe (“Pulpit”) that encases the lower spadix and opens up to form a hood over the top of the spadix. The outside of the spathe is green or purple; the inside is striped greenish-white and purple. One or more large leaves divided into three leaflets rise from a corm, or swollen stem base. Young plants produce only male flowers, becoming hermaphroditic with age. Plants are not self-pollinating, as male and female flowers mature at different times. Pollinated primarily by fungus gnats. Plants can change sex from year to year, depending on the reproductive success of the previous year. Male plants go dormant by mid-summer, while those with female flowers produce clusters of red berries that become visible in late summer when the spathe withers.
1 quart pot
