Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: annew on January 16, 2007, 03:50:25 PM

Title: Arisarum sp.
Post by: annew on January 16, 2007, 03:50:25 PM
I've had this plant, obtained as Arisarum sp, for a couple of years and have never noticed it flower before. Can anyone ID it?
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: Maggi Young on January 16, 2007, 09:14:46 PM
What cute little chaps, Anne. Unless they are mice with their tails cut off, I think they are Arisarum vulgare.  Varies a good deal in spathe colour, from all paler/greeny to these "proper" dark and light two tone chaps. Yours are being very shy by flowering on such short stems, which is why I find them so cute.
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: annew on January 16, 2007, 09:27:55 PM
Thanks, Maggi the pix on Google do look a bit like it. I've also had a message from a member suggesting A. sinorrhinum, and this seems also to be a good possibility.
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: Maggi Young on January 16, 2007, 09:37:41 PM
I don't know A. sinorrhinum, I'll have to get the books out!
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: Maggi Young on January 16, 2007, 09:59:46 PM

I can only find a reference to A. siMorrhinum as a synonym of A. vulgare ssp. exertum, but, online, i found this site for aroids, with this page, with a key, which may help, Anne.
http://www.aroid.org/genera/arisarum/

Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: DaveM on January 17, 2007, 08:48:37 PM
Anne, I agree with Maggi that these are cute little chappies, but the idea that one of the species resembles mice with their posteriors in the air seems frankly bizarre  ;D ;D. There's  a good description of all three species of Arisarum in John Bryan's monster tome on bulbs.

I grow A proboscideum and have seen A vulgare on numerous occasions in the wild. It's definitely not the latter because in vulgare the flowers are held above the leaves. The diagnostic features for A simorrhinum are that the spadix has a globular tip (no rude comments please out there) and that the leaf petioles have spots and lines on them. Can't answer the first from your photo but the second are present. I'll bet that this is the species you've got (unless somebody has found a new one).
Forgive me for this reply if you've already sorted this out via Maggi's suggested website.
All the best
Dave
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: annew on January 17, 2007, 09:07:18 PM
Thanks, Dave, I'll check out the spadix tomorrow.
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: Maggi Young on January 17, 2007, 09:15:46 PM
David, surely Francis must be aware of the mouses "living in " Arisarum proboscideum ? ;)
(and if not, why not?)

I agree with the globular tip stuff, etc, BUT, I still think that early season flowers like these would be below the foliage on A. vulgare.

Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: DaveM on January 17, 2007, 10:43:28 PM
Maggi, the mice wouldn't survive for more than a few seconds around our place in that position  ;D   The only mice we see are the pressies brought in by my wife's **** cats!!! These monsters are the most persistent killing machines I've ever heard of. But there are occasions when dead morsels are replaced by very lively little blighters which are dropped at our feet by said cat as if to say " now catch that...". The race is then on to catch and despatch the mouse before it takes up residence under the fridge or wherever seems safe - they then survive for some time, mostly eating plastic cables such as that for the telephone....... Fortunately, Giz's reactions are fast (better than the England cricket team it seems), whilst Francis looks on laughing at the antics ..........
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: fermi de Sousa on January 18, 2007, 06:34:44 AM
So, Dave, you admit to having Weapons of Mouse Destruction!
cheers
fermi
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: DaveM on January 18, 2007, 08:43:49 PM
Oh dear......... ::)  ::) ::) ::).......
But, it's true.....

I don't believe any of the stuff that's said about your own cats not digging little pits within their own territory. If there's nice dry top dressing and they feel the urge, then they dig and fill!!!!

On one occasion I saw one of them trying to dig a hole in the lawn!!!! Despite my urge to hose the cat down (or worse), I was pursuaded to watch and it turned out that the cat had spotted a mole about to break surface.... the mole was despatched by said cat. :). Several weeks later, I found another dead mole on the lawn....
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: Maggi Young on January 18, 2007, 09:55:41 PM
STILL giggling about the weapons of mouse destruction!!
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: annew on January 20, 2007, 08:11:51 PM
Here are close ups of the flower and leaf stalks. It would seem from the key that it is indeed A. simorrhinum.
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: annew on January 20, 2007, 08:13:00 PM
Forgot to say, the grid is 1cm squares. Thanks for your help everybody!
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: Maggi Young on January 20, 2007, 08:47:10 PM
Super clear pix, Anne, thanks.
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: DaveM on January 21, 2007, 03:32:48 PM
Very clear pics of the flower parts Anne. Pleased that you now have this identified.
Dave
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: Anthony Darby on January 21, 2007, 09:02:39 PM
Phew. I'm glad I came in at the end of that discussion :). Lovely wee plant and much more better than Arisarum probiscoideum [which does indeed look as if it has eaten a mouse], especially as it flowers now. Does it set seed, or should you have any offshoots in due course, I would like to try it here in sunny D?
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: Lesley Cox on January 22, 2007, 02:00:19 AM
Good Lord Anthony! And you a teacher! I DO hope that last post contained a slip of the finger or a moment of mental aberration.

Must mention that your lovely Paris seed arrived at the weekend after a short sojourn with MAF. My fingers slightly smacked because the envelope had no customs declaration on it. But as the seed was named on the outside, all was well. Should have mentioned the sticker. Sorry. And many thanks.
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: annew on January 22, 2007, 09:11:30 AM
I'll watch out for seeds, but I'm not sure if there are any female bits on it! If not I'll sneak a bit off when I repot.
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: David Shaw on January 22, 2007, 12:49:56 PM
Lesley
Anthony's post was timed at 9o'clock on a Sunday evening.
As a school teacher he was probably fortifying himself for the coming week :D
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: Carlo on January 22, 2007, 02:22:10 PM
Well done Anne! Another mystery solved.

This little arisarum is one of the few plants I grow that I saw in its native haunts BEFORE I actually acquired it. Once seen I had to grow it. My plants came from Jane McGary in Oregon, US. Potted in September when I first received them, they put on a flush of leaves but did not bloom. The leaves (but for a few that continue to grow) have gone by now so watering has been reduced. A. proboscideum is blooming indoors and started coming up outdoors (now flattened by the cold). The rhizomes at the top of the ground outside appear to have rotted, but it must survive deeper down. Spring will tell the tale.
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: Anthony Darby on January 22, 2007, 03:19:12 PM
Tongue was firmly in cheek Lesley. It is a frequent answer I get from pupils, but then even I don't understand everything first time: "'Is they wa's grey?' 'Aye, they wa's is grey'".
Title: Re: Arisarum sp.
Post by: Lesley Cox on January 23, 2007, 12:49:33 AM
That's all right then. I remember - with shudders and deep embarrassment for her - when a recent prime minister of this country, (not the current one) and during the course of a speech at a state luncheon for some visiting dignitary, used the word "mischievious." She too was (had been) a teacher and the daughter of a Presbytarian minister to boot!
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