Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: Rodger Whitlock on July 06, 2009, 04:52:42 AM
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Anyone recognize this?
I haven't a clue where it came from but it comes up, flowers, and fruits faithfully. If it's anything unusual, I'll collect the seed.
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Rodger,
It doesn't bring to mind any of the Arums (although could be a species I don't grow), but I'd be more inclined to think it was one of the Typhoniums. As to which species, I can't help there, but there are around 50 or so from memory. Hopefully that might point you in the right direction, or trigger a memory as to it's name?
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It doesn't bring to mind any of the Arums (although could be a species I don't grow), but I'd be more inclined to think it was one of the Typhoniums.
Probably not a typhonium because it's entirely hardy and the typhoniums are evidently tropical. Granted, we have mild winters here, but we do get periods of sub-freezing weather many years. This last winter the nighttime temperature dropped to -12C or so a couple of nights.
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Is Arisarum vulgare a possibility? Not sure what it looks like.
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Rodger,
Not all Typhoniums are tropical. There are at least a few Australian ones at least that definitely aren't. I have Typhonium brownii that grows outside for me here without a problem. The flower shape reminds me of yours, although it doesn't hood over like that, and the leaves are very similar. That is why I suggested Typhoniums.
Lesley,
Don't you guys have Arisarum vulgare in NZ? I love it for it's spotty leaves and the little cobra flowers held above the foliage looking out at you, even if it does spread a little too enthusiastically at times. Definitely very different to Rodger's beastie. 8)
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If it is only a few inches high it could be Arum balansanum which is very rare in cultivation but one of the daintier ones. That would also be hardy.
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If it is only a few inches high it could be Arum balansanum which is very rare in cultivation but one of the daintier ones. That would also be hardy.
The flowers are about 6" high, perhaps more. They've faded now, of course, so that's an estimate based on a rather hazy memory. I wouldn't call it a small plant; comparable in scale to Arisaema triphyllum or Podophyllum hexandrum.
If you see "Small smelly aroid" in the seed lists this coming winter, you'll know what it looks like and where it came from!
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I think this plant is Typhonium diversifolium. I myself have Typhonium blumeii which is another delightful small form of that species. Both have the same foliage as your unidentified aroid. I think 'small smellie' is beautiful - but then I am an aroidaholic.
Edna
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A warm welcome to the Forum Edna, or at least to the worshipful company of posters, as distinct from lurkers. About time we had a bigger Canterbury contingent. It will be good to have your experience and insight with aroids.
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I think this plant is Typhonium diversifolium. I myself have Typhonium blumeii which is another delightful small form of that species. Both have the same foliage as your unidentified aroid. I think 'small smellie' is beautiful - but then I am an aroidaholic.
If your avatar is that Typhonium, Edna, I'm pretty sure my plant isn't the same due to the difference in flower conformation.
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Rodger,
I'd be guessing that her avatar is an Arum, given here ID. ;D My Typhonium brownii has a distinctly different shape to the flower than any Arum I have come across, more rounded at the tip in particular. This is what reminded me of yours and why I suggested that genus. I only have limited experience of Typhoniums though, having only seen mine and T. eliosurum in the flesh (so to speak). Both were different to Arums I had seen, flower-wise.
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Thank you Leslie for your welcome and your kind words. I am loving being a member of this forum. To log in each day & have access to such valuable knowledge, informative experiences and images provided by all these interesting like-minded plants-people is very rewarding indeed.
Rodger, you can have 'small smellie' ID'd on the International Aroid Soc. website. In 2005 I posted pics of a little aroid a friend had grown from seed collected in Eastern Nepal at a height of 4500 to 4800 metres A.S.L. Turned out to be T. diversifolium - some of the 'flowers' were unusually striped, but the majority were the usual liver coloured.It was such an interesting experience. And yes I do doubt now that your plant is this particular species but I too would like very much to know just what it is. Do hope you get an abundance of seed.
Cheers Edna
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Whatever it is, its a stunner! Look forward to the ID.
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Rodger, you can have 'small smellie' ID'd on the International Aroid Soc. website.
Thank you, Edna, for this pointer. I've sent them the photo and they've posted it in their ID section. Now to see what it turns out to be.
I'm convinced that it's an arum of some sort: the overall form and habit is very much like Arum italicum and A. dioscoridis.
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Rodger,
Arum dioscoridis must look very different in your part of the world to here then, by a long way. Much more elongated flowers, as the foliage dies down here, nowhere near as "rounded" as i your pic. It'll be fascinating to see what it ends up being, as it doesn't match anything I have grown. I very much like it though with it's rounder flowers. Very nice, whatever it is. 8)
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the one thing I can say with certainty is it is not Arum dioscoridis and if it was A. italicum I would be amazed given the colour.
Having seen most arum species in the wild and growing a lot of them, identification is difficult.Unless it is one of the easily identifiable ones such as A. rupicola it is almost always necessary to know what type of tuber it has in addition to the above ground parts and dissect the flower as well.
In the wild plants can be growing a few yards apart and depending on the moisture available and the light levels the same species can vary from a few inches to a couple of feet and so garden cultivation does not always give a good indication of species.
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Rodger,
It has to be Arum nigrum by the form and color of the flower.
A beautiful species from the Balkans.
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......of course, sometimes it is a blessing not to have a Forum "Scent Here" button.......... :-X
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Oron that is very definitive!I have moved more towards A. elongatum from around the Black Sea which is on sale in N.America.I think there are too many of these little purple ones to chose from to be able to determine from the photograph.
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......of course, sometimes it is a blessing not to have a Forum "Scent Here" button.......... :-X
No, we do need it Maggi. We don't have to click on it after all. :)
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Oron that is very definitive!I have moved more towards A. elongatum from around the Black Sea which is on sale in N.America.I think there are too many of these little purple ones to chose from to be able to determine from the photograph.
Tony
I know to which form you refer, i think it is the one sold by Pacific Rim Native Plants Nursery.
It looks similar but still A. nigrum has this 'baseball glove' shape which only a few species have as in the case of A. italicum and A. concinnatum, all on relatively short pedical.
and.. i said 'it has to be', not it is... ;)
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It has to be Arum nigrum by the form and color of the flower.
A beautiful species from the Balkans.
After I sent a copy of the photo to the International Aroid Society for inclusion on their identification page, I looked over the gallery of arum photographs, and A. nigrum was one that caught my eye as a possibility.
When I referred to its resemblance to Aa. italicum and dioscoridis, I meant that the anatomy of the flower - not its size or coloration - reminded me of an arum. The only other aroid genera I am at all familiar with are arisaema and pinellia, and it certainly didn't resemble either of those in its anatomy.
This leaves unsolved the mystery of where this came from. It's in an area where I planted a number of Pinellia species many years ago , so I wonder if it was a stray seed in one of those pots when it came from the nursery. The pinellias didn't survive: soil too wet in winter.
At any rate, Arum nigrum it will be. Thanks again for your help.