Cuckoo-pint
Arum maculatum
Also known as: Lords-and-ladies · Wild Arum · Wake Robin · Jack-in-the-pulpit
Plantae
COMMON
Stats
- Lifespan
- Perennial
- Size
- Small
- Diet
- Photosynthetic
- Biome
- Temperate forest
- Range
- Europe
- Movement
- Sessile
- Breeding
- Seeds
- Defense
- Toxins
- Status
- Common
About
A woodland herb best known for its hooded, pale-green spathe wrapped around a purple club-shaped spadix that gives off a faint smell of rotting meat to lure pollinating flies. In autumn the plant produces a spike of bright orange-red berries, all parts of which are toxic if eaten.
Life cycle
- 1.seedA dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
- 2.sproutA first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
- 3.saplingA young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
- 4.matureFully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.
Learn more
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Plantae
- Phylum
- Tracheophyta
- Class
- Liliopsida
- Order
- Alismatales
- Family
- Araceae
- Genus
- Arum
- Species
- Arum maculatum