Pulpit Gallery
Arisaema triphyllum, female
producing only little male flowers, that when this
comparatively enormous specimen rose up in the garden,
I wasn't sure what the devil the species could be!
In any given year, American pulpits are always
of one sex or the other, but older specimens will
change their sex, & female flowers are usually larger.
Not that I'm any good at sexing them, so am not really sure
why this three-leaf Arisaeme was two or three times bigger
than the rest. I had bought several of them
at a close-out sale, & only the one was this big in 2003.
The first photo shows it early in June just getting its leaves up,
with the spathe still a little horn at the foot of the stem.
A green flower is rising up
among the maturing leaves!
Oh how lovely & stripey is this spathe.
It has no purplish coloration inside the hood
as do all the other three-leafed pulpits in the garden,
so I may yet someday find out this is a different species
or at least a bigger subspecies. But it was
bought as A. triphyllum & it certainly has
the three leaves per stem it is supposed to have.
The one bloom lasted through July,
without producing a corncobby seedhead.
The leaves lasted to August & would've lasted
longer but that a cat or racoon trod on it.
The following year, this plant produced
another extra big flower.
The first three photos are from 2003, all of
the same pulpit, but this one from May 2004
is another one that had in previous years produced
very small male flowers, but this year produced a
big female flower. That's a Gladwyn Evergreen Iris behind it.
For more information & photos about
the American Jack-in-the-Pulpit, go to the
Arisaema triphyllum Page.
Continue to the Next Page of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit Gallery.