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Andrew McCredie Layne Christensen

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NEWS photo

TAKE A stroil down a nature path this time of year and you may get
a whiff of Lysichiton americanum, more popularly known as skunk
cabbage. Though odorous, this spring-flowering plant has many
detightful attributes, according to garden columnist Roy Jonsson.

STORIES

ALMOST ANY nature trail you
choose on the North Shore will
take you past a bog area where
Soils are almost always saturai-
ed with water and contain little
air.

Plants growing in this environment
need to be highly specialized, like the
well-known Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton
americanum). As you walk atong North
Shore trails in the late Winter or early
Spring you can see this deciduous
member of the Arum family sending up
a light, creamy yellow spathe or sheath
that is partially wrapped around a Jarge
spadix or flower stock, Leaves emerge
in mid-Spring after the fowers are. pol-
linated. The actual flowers are hard to
see as they are tightly arranged around
the bolt-like spadix.

Your eye may be attracted to the
plant by the sun shining on the yellow
spathe but it is more likely that your
Nose will detect it first. The mild skunk
odor has, unfortunately, kept the plant
from becoming a popular landscape
plant. However, with only a few plants
in your garden and a short spring
blooming period, the odor is not a
major problem. The positive character-
istics of the plant far outweigh the nega-
tive odor.

There are few native plants like the
skunk cabbage. Its large, green leaves
(20-25 cm wide and 70-100 cm tong)
that will give the garden that lush,
almost tropical look until late
in the fall. The plant prefers
early spring sunshine and
summer shade, a condition
found under deciduous tre

If you have a pool-side gar-
den, bog garden or simulated
stream bed where there is con-
stant but static moisture and
summer shade, consider
adding a tropical touch with
the addition of some L, ameri-
canum. A small area with a
drainage problem is some-
times best made into a perma-
nent bog garden rather than
trying to solve the problem
with ditches and drain pipes.

Too often gardeners fight
nature rather than work with it.

Other non-bog plants in the
Aram family that may be of
interest to gardeners are Jack-

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ROY
Jonsson

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In-The-Pulpit

(Dracontium triphyllum),

Green Dragon plant

(Dracunculis vulgaris)

and Arum italicum mar-

moratumi,

Jack-In-The-Pulpit is
also called Indian turnip
and has a distinctive
spadix that is called the
“Jack.”

D. vulgaris or Dragon plant has a very large (25-30 em) deep
purple flower spathe with leaves up to 50 to 60 cm. It is a striking
looking plant but unfortunately, like the Skunk Cabbage, produces
an odor.

A, italicum has large calla lily-like leaves that are marbled
(green and white) and produces a spadix or flower stock that has a
large cluster of scarlet red berries the size of peas. Both leaves
and berries are eye catchers. .

The Arum family or aroids as they are known also have some
tropical members that are of general interest. Tropical America's
Antheriums (A. andracanum and A. scherzerianum) have long
heen used for cut flowers. Their bright red color and smooth tex-
ture may lead one to believe they are made of plastic. They now
come as hybrids in colors of red, rose, yellow and white.

Monstera deliciosa is another member of the Arum family and
is often seen growing as an indoor plant. The very large leaves
(60-90 cm). with distinctive holes. grow on a vine-like plant that
can be 8 to 10 inetres tall in the tropics. The extra large spadix
lums into a banana-pineapple favored fruit.

For those of you who have been to Hawaii and tasted the
starchy, paste-like food called Poi, you will be interested to know
it is made from a large tuber called Colocasia esculenta — com-
monly called Taro root. Every traditional Hawaiian family has
their bog or paddy-type garden where they grow this member of
the Arum family. A closely related plant is Caladium bicolour, an
attractive house plant.

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