Arum triphyllum var. atrorubens(Aiton) Dewey ex Alph.Wood
Arum triphyllum var. pallescensSims
Arum triphyllum var. virensMichx.
Arum triphyllum var. virideSims
Arum triphyllum var. zebrinumSims
Arum vittatumSalisb.
Arisaema triphyllum, the Jack-in-the-pulpit, is a species of flowering plant in the arum familyAraceae. It is a member of the Arisaema triphyllum complex, a group of four or five closely related taxa in eastern North America. The specific name triphyllum means "three-leaved",[3] a characteristic feature of the species, which is also referred to as Indian turnip, bog onion, and brown dragon.
Used without qualification, the name Arisaema triphyllum is ambiguous. For clarity, the qualified name Arisaema triphyllumsensu stricto (abbreviated s.s.) refers to the species while Arisaema triphyllumsensu lato refers to the species complex. The latter includes the species (Arisaema triphyllum) among its members.
Arisaema triphyllum sensu lato is wide-ranging across eastern North America, from Nova Scotia to Manitoba in eastern Canada, and from Texas to Florida in the southern United States. It is common throughout most of its range.
Description
Plant in the Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania, USACloser view of flower, showing detail of spathe
Arisaema triphyllumsensu lato is a herbaceous, perennial, flowering plant growing from a corm. It typically grows up to two feet (61cm) tall,[5] but populations in Georgia and Florida are known to reach almost twice that height.[4] It has 1 or 2leaves, each with three leaflets (triphyllum). Occasionally the lateral leaflets will be two-parted or lobed, giving the appearance of five leaflets per leaf. One species (A.quinatum) typically has five pseudo-leaflets per leaf.
The small, inconspicuous flowers of Jack-in-the-pulpit are borne on a fleshy, spike-like inflorescence called a spadix ("Jack"), which is enclosed (or nearly enclosed) by a large, sometimes colorful bract called a spathe ("pulpit"). The flowers are clustered around the base of the spadix inside the spathe. A sterile spadix appendix protrudes from the mouth of the spathe tube. The appendix is covered by the leafy tip of the spathe, referred to as the spathe hood (or spathe lamina). The lip along the mouth of the spathe tube, used as a landing platform for winged insects, is called the spathe flange.
The inflorescence can be male (with male flowers only), bisexual (with both male and female flowers), or female (with female flowers only). Arisaema is quite unusual in that individuals change sex in a pattern determined by their size.[6] In a small plant, most if not all of the flowers are male. As the plant matures and grows larger, the spadix produces female flowers as well as male flowers. The transition from male to female continues until eventually the plant produces female flowers only.[7] This is an example of dichogamy, a rare phenomenon in flowering plants. Due to this sex-change lifecycle, this species is sometimes called colloquially as Jack or Jill in the pulpit[8][9][10] or Jill-in-the-pulpit.[11][12]
The unripe fruits are smooth, shiny green berries (each 1cm wide) clustered around the thickened spadix. Fruits ripen in the late summer and early fall, turning a conspicuous bright red color. Each berry typically produces 1–5 seeds, which are white to light tan, rounded, often with flattened edges and a short sharp point at the top. If the seeds are freed from the berry, they will germinate the next spring, producing seedlings each with a single rounded leaf. A seedling needs three or more years of growth before it becomes mature enough to flower.[citation needed]
Arisaema pusillum, Arisaema stewardsonii, and Arisaema quinatum are diploid with 28chromosomes.[4]Arisaema triphyllum s.s. is predominantly tetraploid with 56chromosomes but plants otherwise indistinguishable from typical A.triphyllum occasionally have 28chromosomes. Two such plants were found in Cayuga County, New York in the 1940s.[13] The evolutionary origin of the tetraploid is unknown.
Identification
The following table of characteristics serves to separate the members of the Arisaema triphyllum complex:[4][13][14]
Primarily northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada
Endemic to southeastern U.S.
In the body of the table above, important diagnostic characters are emphasized in bold. To identify an individual to species, ask the following questions (in order):
Is it Arisaema stewardsonii? (Does it have a strongly fluted spathe tube?) If not, continue.
Is it Arisaema quinatum? (Does it have a curved spadix appendix?) If not, continue.
Is it Arisaema pusillum? (Check for multiple matching characters.) Otherwise it is Arisaema triphyllum s.s.
Although the taxa are morphologically distinct, identification may be difficult, especially from herbarium specimens where the required characters are often lost in pressing and drying.[15]
Non-flowering plants are sometimes confused with those of Pinellia,[4] a genus of plants native to East Asia but introduced to a handful of states in the eastern U.S., including the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.[16]
Taxonomy
Arisaema triphyllumsensu stricto was first described as Arum triphyllum by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in the first edition of Species Plantarum in 1753.[17] Linnaeus expanded the description of the taxon in the second edition published in 1763.[18][19] The Austrian botanist Heinrich Wilhelm Schott placed Arum triphyllumL. in the genus Arisaema in 1832.[1] The name Arisaema triphyllum(L.) Schott is widely used today despite a taxonomic disruption that prevailed during the second half of the twentieth century.
By 1903, four additional species of Arisaema in eastern North America had been described: Arisaema acuminatumSmall, Arisaema pusillum(Peck) Nash, Arisaema quinatum(Nutt.) Schott, and Arisaema stewardsoniiBritton. In 1940, Merritt Lyndon Fernald posed the question "What is Arisaema triphyllum?",[20] arguing that the type described by Linnaeus was in fact Arisaema pusillum, a claim that destabilized the existing nomenclature.[21] In response, a proposal to conserve the name and type of Arum triphyllumL. was briefly considered,[22] but in 1993 the Committee for Spermatophyta recommended against the proposal, which effectively established the name Arisaema triphyllum(L.) Schott as the official name of the entity. However, the committee's action left botanists with an inherently unstable nomenclature.
Dismissing Fernald's claim as inconclusive, Donald Grunert Huttleston introduced three subspecies of Arisaema triphyllum in 1949,[13] and a fourth subspecies in 1981.[14] He discussed but rejected a fifth taxon believed to be of hybrid origin. Together with their basionyms and other synonyms,[23] these five taxa are sometimes referred to as the Arisaema triphyllum complex:[24][25]
Within the genus Arisaema, A. triphyllum is classified in the section Pedatisecta and is most closely related to Asian species such as A. amurense. It is not a close relative to the other American Arisaema species (A. dracontium and A. macrospathum), which are in a different section of Arisaema.[37]
Distribution and habitat
Arisaema triphyllumsensu lato is wide-ranging across eastern North America, from Nova Scotia in the northeast to Florida in the southeast, stretching westward across the Mississippi River valley into the Great Plains, from Texas in the southwest to Manitoba in the northwest.[27][38][26] It is common throughout most of its range, occurring in most counties in over 30states in the eastern U.S.[39]
Less is known about the distribution of Arisaema triphyllumsensu stricto. Based on records of Arisaema triphyllum subsp.triphyllum,[40][41] it may be inferred that the former is likewise wide-ranging, with known occurrences across 6provinces and 37states plus the District of Columbia.[2] In the southeastern United States, it is common as far south as the Florida panhandle.[42]
Ecology
Arisaema triphyllumsensu lato flowers from April to June.[citation needed]Arisaema triphyllumsensu stricto is the first to flower in the spring. In regions where the species are sympatric, Arisaema stewardsonii and Arisaema pusillum begin to flower 1–2 and 2–3 weeks later, respectively.[13] Since an individual flowering period can last 1–3 weeks or more,[7] it is not unusual to find all three species in flower at the same time. In the southeastern United States, Arisaema quinatum is reported to flower later than either A.pusillum or A.triphyllum s.s.[4]
Arisaema triphyllum sensu lato is pollinated by fungus gnats, which it attracts by smell and are trapped by the flower. They manage to escape from a hole at the bottom of the male's pulpit, but cannot do so when they fall inside a female pulpit, which do not have exit holes. [9][43] Thus the Jill-in-the-pulpit is a rare femme fatale in the plant world: luring the gnats in with scent, but ultimately killing the pollinators in a death trap. [44][45]
Other insects are known to visit the flowers as well, such as gall gnats and beetles.[7] The plant is not self-pollinating since the male flowers on a specific plant have already matured and died before the female flowers of that same plant are mature. So the female flowers need to be pollinated by the male flowers of a different plant. This inhibits inbreeding and contributes to the health of the species.
Arisaema pusillum, Arisaema stewardsonii, and Arisaema triphyllum sensu stricto are reproductively isolated in the wild, with some degree of ecological separation.[25] However, a population intermediate between Arisaema stewardsonii and Arisaema triphyllum s.s.is known to occur near Clyde, New York.[46] Individuals from this population have glaucous leaves (like A.triphyllum) and strongly fluted spathes (like A.stewardsonii), growing in dry sandy soil (like neither species). Chromosome counts were performed on six of these plants.[13] Four were found to be diploid with 28chromosomes (like A.stewardsonii) while two were triploid with 42chromosomes (intermediate).
Conservation
The conservation status of Arisaema triphyllum sensu lato is globally secure (G5).[27] Based on the conservation status of Arisaema triphyllum subsp.triphyllum,[41] it may be inferred that Arisaema triphyllum sensu stricto is globally secure as well. Arisaema triphyllum is imperiled at best (S1S2) in Manitoba.
Toxicity
The oxalic acid in jack-in-the-pulpit is poisonous if ingested.[47] The plant contains calcium oxalate crystals as raphides in all parts, and because of this, consumption of the raw plant material results in a powerful burning sensation. It can cause irritation of the mouth and digestive system and (on rare occasions) intense swelling of the mouth and throat, potentially being severe enough to affect breathing. Arisaemas are in the same plant family as the anthuriums, aglaonemas, alocasias, colocasias, dieffenbachias, monsteras and philodendrons (among numerous others)— all known as "dumb-canes"—and carry the shared side-effect of an enflamed upper respiratory/digestive system upon ingestion.[citation needed]
Uses
If the plant is cooked[how?] it can be eaten as a root vegetable. The calcium oxalate crystals produce a peppery flavor.[48] If the plant is sliced then dried it can be eaten like potato chips or ground into a flour.[49]
One account from the Meskwaki people states that they would chop the herb's corm and mix it with meat and leave the meat out for their enemies to find. The taste of the oxalate would not be detectable because of the flavored meat, but consuming the meat reportedly caused their enemies pain and death. They have also reportedly used it to determine the fate of the sick by dropping a seed in a cup of stirred water; If the seed went around four times clockwise, the patient would recover, if it went around less than four times they would not.[50]
Plants in early spring before the leaves have fully unfolded
Seeds
Berries
Gloved hands cleaning seeds from pulp
Mycetophilid gnat Phronia found dead inside female inflorescence
Related Research Articles
The Araceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe. Also known as the arum family, members are often colloquially known as aroids. This family of 140 genera and about 4,075 known species is most diverse in the New World tropics, although also distributed in the Old World tropics and northern temperate regions.
A raceme or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the shoot grows in height, with no predetermined growth limit. Examples of racemes occur on mustard, radish, and orchid plants.
In botany, a spadix is a type of inflorescence having small flowers borne on a fleshy stem. Spadices are typical of the family Araceae, the arums or aroids. The spadix is typically surrounded by a leaf-like curved bract known as a spathe. For example, the "flower" of the well known Anthurium spp. is a typical spadix with a large colorful spathe.
Philodendron is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. As of September 2015, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families accepted 489 species; other sources accept different numbers. Regardless of number of species, the genus is the second-largest member of the family Araceae, after genus Anthurium. Taxonomically, the genus Philodendron is still poorly known, with many undescribed species. Many are grown as ornamental and indoor plants. The name derives from the Greek words philo- 'love, affection' and dendron 'tree'. The generic name, Philodendron, is often used as the English name.
Anthurium is a genus of about 1,000 species of flowering plants, the largest genus of the arum family, Araceae. General common names include anthurium, tailflower, flamingo flower, and laceleaf.
Arisaema is a large and diverse genus of the flowering plant family Araceae. The largest concentration of species is in China and Japan, with other species native to other parts of southern Asia as well as eastern and central Africa, Mexico and eastern North America. Asiatic species are often called cobra lilies, while western species are often called jack-in-the-pulpit; both names refer to the distinctive appearance of the flower, which consists of an erect central spadix rising from a spathe.
Symplocarpus foetidus, commonly known as skunk cabbage or eastern skunk cabbage, is a low-growing plant that grows in wetlands and moist hill slopes of eastern North America. Bruised leaves present an odor reminiscent of skunk.
Arum maculatum is a woodland flowering plant species in the family Araceae. It is native across most of Europe, as well as Eastern Turkey and the Caucasus.
Lysichiton is a genus in the family Araceae. These plants are known commonly as skunk cabbage or less often as swamp lantern. The spelling Lysichitum is also found. The genus has two species, one found in north-east Asia, the other in north-west America.
Calla is a genus of flowering plant in the family Araceae, containing the single species Calla palustris.
Arum is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to Europe, northern Africa, and western and central Asia, with the highest species diversity in the Mediterranean region. Frequently called arum lilies, they are not closely related to the true lilies Lilium. Plants in closely related Zantedeschia are also called "arum lilies".
Arisaema dracontium, the dragon-root or green dragon, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the genus Arisaema and the family Araceae. It is native to North America from Quebec through Minnesota south through Florida and Texas, where it is found growing in damp woods. It has also been reported from northeastern Mexico Plants grow 20–50 centimetres (7.9–19.7 in) tall when in bloom and after flowering reach 100 centimetres (39 in), and each grows from a corm. Normally, a plant produces one leaf with a long petiole, its leaf is composed of 7 to 13 leaflets, with its central leaflet being the largest one and with leaflets becoming smaller as they are produced distally, the leaflets are held out horizontally over the plant. During flowering in spring, a single slender, green spathe 3–6 centimetres (1.2–2.4 in) long is produced; it covers a tapering, long thin spadix. The tail-like spadix grows out around the top of its spathe. After flowering, up to 150 berries are produced in a club-shaped column. In late summer, the green berries turn orange-red, each berry produces 1 to 3 seeds. It is listed as a vulnerable species in Canada.
Orontium aquaticum, sometimes called golden-club, floating arum, never-wets or tawkin, is a species of flowering plants in the family Araceae. It is the single living species in the genus Orontium, which also contains several extinct species described from fossils. O. aquaticum is endemic to the eastern United States and is found growing in ponds, streams, and shallow lakes. It prefers an acidic environment. The leaves are pointed and oval with a water repellent surface. The inflorescence is most notable for having an extremely small almost indistinguishable sheath surrounding the spadix. Very early in the flowering this green sheath withers away leaving only the spadix.
Lagenandra is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. It is endemic to the Indian Subcontinent. The genus is similar to Cryptocoryne, but can be distinguished from it by its involute vernation. Cryptocoryne on the other hand exhibit convolute vernation.
Arisaema flavum is a species of flowering plant widespread across north-eastern Africa and southern Asia. It is native to Ethiopia, Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Assam, Himalayas, Tibet, Yunnan, and Sichuan. The species epithet flavum is Latin for yellow and indicates its flower colour.
Arisaema candidissimum is a species of flowering plant in the arum family (Araceae), originating in western China. Various English names have been given to the species, including Chinese cobra lily and Chinese jack-in-the-pulpit. The Chinese name is 白苞南星.
Arisaema quinatum is a species of flowering plant in the arum family Araceae. It is a member of the Arisaema triphyllum complex, a group of closely related taxa in eastern North America. The specific name quinatum means "divided into five lobes", a reference to its characteristic leaves. It is commonly known as the southern Jack-in-the-pulpit but some refer to it as Preacher John.
Arisaema pusillum is a species of flowering plant in the arum family Araceae. It is a member of the Arisaema triphyllum complex, a group of closely related taxa in eastern North America. The specific name pusillum, which means "very small, slender", describes the overall size of the plant relative to that of the more common Arisaema triphyllum. It is commonly known as the small Jack-in-the-pulpit. It is sometimes referred to as the swamp Jack, not to be confused with Arisaema stewardsonii, which is also known by that name.
Arisaema stewardsonii is a species of flowering plant in the arum family Araceae. It is a member of the Arisaema triphyllum complex, a group of closely related taxa in eastern North America. The specific name stewardsonii honors American botanist Stewardson Brown (1867–1921). It is commonly known as the bog Jack-in-the-pulpit. It is sometimes referred to as the swamp Jack-in-the-pulpit, not to be confused with Arisaema pusillum, which is also known by that name.
Arisaema acuminatum is a species of flowering plant in the arum family Araceae. It is a member of the Arisaema triphyllum complex, a group of closely related taxa in eastern North America. The specific name acuminatum means "with a long, narrow and pointed tip", which describes the shape of the spathe hood. The species is commonly known as the Florida Jack-in-the-pulpit.
↑ Reveal, James L.; Jarvis, Charles E.; Barrie, Fred R. (May 1990). "Proposal to conserve the name and type of Arum triphyllumL. (Araceae)". Taxon. 39 (2): 355–357. doi:10.2307/1223074. JSTOR1223074.
1 2 USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Arisaema triphyllum". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
↑ Gilman, Arthur V. (2015). New Flora of Vermont. Memoirs of The New York Botanical Garden, Volume110. Bronx, New York, USA: The New York Botanical Garden Press. p.49. ISBN978-0-89327-516-7.
↑ "Arisaema triphyllum". State-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
↑ "Arisaema triphyllum". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
↑ Niering, William A.; Olmstead, Nancy C. (1985) [1979]. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Eastern Region. Knopf. p.341. ISBN0-394-50432-1.
↑ Peterson, Lee A. (1999). A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides). Houghton Mifflin. p.156. ISBN978-0-395-92622-2.
Huttleston, Donald G. (1949). "The three subspecies of Arisaema triphyllum". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 76 (6): 407–413. doi:10.2307/2482333. JSTOR2482333.
Huttleston, Donald G. (1981). "The four subspecies of Arisaema triphyllum". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 108 (4): 479–481. doi:10.2307/2484449. JSTOR2484449.
Treiber, Miklos (1980). Biosystematics of the Arisaema triphyllum complex (PhD). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina.
Weakley, Alan S.; Southeastern Flora Team (2022). "Flora of the southeastern United States". University of North Carolina Herbarium, North Carolina Botanical Garden.
External links
"Arisaema triphyllum". NameThatPlant.net: Native and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas & Georgia. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
Haddock, Mike (2018). "Jack-in-the-pulpit". Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
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