Common Name: golden club
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Araceae
Native Range: Eastern United States
Zone: 5 to 10
Height: 1.00 to 2.00 feet
Spread: 1.00 to 2.50 feet
Bloom Time: April to June
Bloom Description: Yellow
Sun: Full sun
Water: Wet
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Water Plant, Naturalize, Rain Garden
Flower: Showy
Culture
Winter hardy to USDA Zones 5-10. In water gardens, grow in containers submerged in 6-18” of water in full sun. Leaves tend to emerge in shallow water (6-9”), but mostly float in deeper water (12-18”). Tolerates part shade, but best leaf color is developed in full sun. Thrives in organically rich loams. Also may be grown in the shallow margins of a pond, either in containers or planted in the mud from the water’s edge to 18” deep. Easily grown from seed that should be sown as soon as it ripens (early summer).
Noteworthy Characteristics
Orontium aquaticum, commonly called golden club, is a rhizomatous marginal aquatic perennial that typically grows in shallow water in swamps, marshes, ponds, slow-moving streams and bogs from Massachusetts to W. Virginia and Kentucky south to the Gulf of Mexico. Grows 1-2’ tall and spreads indefinitely by stout, slowly creeping rhizomes. Long-stalked elliptic dark bluish-green leaves (to 12” long) are submerged, floating or aerial. If removed from water, submerged leaves appear totally dry because of their waxy glaucous surface, hence the sometimes common name of never-wet for this plant. Tiny yellow flowers appear in narrow club-like spadixes (to 8” tall) from April to June. Spathes of this Arum family member are small, non-showy and wither rapidly.
Genus name comes from the Greek name orontion now applied to a North American aquatic. It is said to have belonged to some plant growing in the Syrian river Orontes.
Specific epithet means growing in or near water.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems.
Uses
Transitional plant for water gardens and ponds. Bog gardens.