Author Topic: What is it... (Read 2617 times)

bloomer · « **on:** April 14, 2014, 06:27:48 pm »

Saw this out walking today,

Can anyone identify it please

Link goes to the picture on my facebook account

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202832728152579&set=ms.10202832727672567.10202832728152579.10202832728032576.10202832728912598.10202832729512613.10202832729352609.10202832729792620.bps.a.10202164189199523.1073741826.1032581262&type=1&theater

jaykay · « **Reply #1 on:** April 14, 2014, 07:52:46 pm »

It's an arum lily, Arum maculatum .

Called 'lords and ladies', 'cuckoo pint', 'priest in the pulpit' and no doubt lots of other things around the country.

bloomer · « **Reply #2 on:** April 14, 2014, 07:54:42 pm »

thank you

Greenerlife · « **Reply #3 on:** April 14, 2014, 07:56:26 pm »

I call it skunk cabbage, but it think it's an Americanism. It smells like cabbage anyway (if you didn't already know that!)

waddy · « **Reply #4 on:** April 14, 2014, 07:58:19 pm »

I know it as skunk cabbage also for the smell.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Western Skunk Cabbage)

Lysichiton americanus
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Lysichitum americanum (L.) Schott, orth. var.[/font]

[/size][/t][/font]Lysichiton americanus, also called western skunk cabbage (USA), yellow skunk cabbage (UK),[1] or swamp lantern, is a plant found in swamps and wet woods, along streams and in other wet areas of the Pacific Northwest, where it is one of the few native species in the arum family. The plant is called skunk cabbage because of the distinctive "skunky" odor that it emits when it blooms. This odor will permeate the area where the plant grows, and can be detected even in old, dried specimens. The distinctive odor attracts its pollinators, scavenging flies and beetles. Although similarly named and with a similar smell, the plant is easy to distinguish from the Eastern Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), another species in the arum family found in eastern North America.

jaykay · « **Reply #5 on:** April 14, 2014, 10:48:54 pm »

Ah, now I note that it was in the castle grounds, not in the wild, so it probably is skunk cabbage and not our native arum.

Somewhere_by_the_river · « **Reply #6 on:** April 15, 2014, 09:21:31 am »

Definitely skunk cabbage, they are real beacons at this time of year when grown in a clump next to running water. Best seen from a distance though, waddy is right abut the smell!