Arisaema triphyllum
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Tried and True Recommended by 3 Professionals
Species Native to Missouri
Common Name: jack-in-the-pulpit
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Araceae
Zone: 4 to 9
Native Range: Eastern North America
Garden Location: Martha Love Symington Missouri Native Shade Garden
Height: 1 to 2 feet
Spread: 1 to 1.5 feet
Bloom Time: April to May
Bloom Color: Green, Purple
Bloom Description: Green/purple
Sun: Part shade to full shade
Water: Medium to wet
Maintenance: Medium
Flowers: Showy Flowers
Fruit: Showy Fruit
Tolerates: Wet Soil, Dense Shade, Black Walnuts
Uses: Rain Garden, Will Naturalize

Culture

Best grown in fertile, medium to wet soil in part shade to full shade. Needs constantly moist soil rich in organic matter. Does poorly in heavy clay soils. May be grown from seed, but takes five years for plant to flower.

Noteworthy Characteristics

Jack-in-the-pulpit is a spring woodland wildflower usually growing 1- 2' tall. Flower structure consists of the spadix (Jack) which is an erect spike containing numerous, tiny, green to purple flowers and the sheath-like spathe (pulpit) which encases the lower part of the spadix and then opens to form a hood extending over the top of the spadix. The outside of the spathe is usually green or purple and the inside is usually striped purple and greenish white, though considerable color variations exist. Two large green, compound, long-petioled leaves (1-1.5' long), divided into three leaflets each, emanate upward from a single stalk and provide umbrella-like shade to the flower. The fleshy stalk and leaves lend an almost tropical aura to the plant. Flowering plants initially produce only male flowers, but become hermaphroditic as they further age (male flowers on upper part of spadix and female on lower part). Most plants in a colony will vanish by mid-summer (become dormant), but the mature, hermaphroditic flowering plant will produce a cluster of red berries in mid to late summer which becomes visible as the spathe withers. Roots contain calcium oxalate (same chemical as in Diffenbachia or dumb cane) and are poisonous.

Problems

No serious insect or disease problems.

Garden Uses

Best left undisturbed in the shady woodland garden, wild garden or native plant garden.

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