| Where
the garden meets the wild
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ARUM VOODOO LILY, PEACE LILY Araceae (Arum family) 疆南星属 |
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Seed cobs of Arum cyrenaicum. Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
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These fascinating tubers resemble their relatives, arisaemas, but with key differences. Both prefer moist but fast-draining organic soil and sun to woodland shade, depending on the climate. Both attract flies as pollinators. Both have a pulpit "flower" consisting of a hoodlike spathe enclosing an erect spadix. Both produce cobs of berries. But in Arum, the sexual parts are always female at the bottom of the spadix and male at the top; the berries are always red-orange; and the leaves are rarely lobed or divided. Fond and copious detail about Arum and other aroids will be found on the website of the International Aroid Society. We thank Peter Boyce, author of The Genus Arum, for his generous help in identifying our plants. All the arums we offer are hardy in Zone 6, given excellent drainage and straw or bark mulch. Many appear to be hardier, having survived in pots outdoors here without mulch. We keep A. creticum in our cool greenhouse; all the other species freeze and thaw many times and their leaves bounce back pristine. Many of our arums come from warm climates; cold tolerance must have been important in their distant past. Supplies of all these wonders are limited. Order tubers for Autumn shipping. |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Arum
alpinum subsp. alpinum Pale green flowers emerge amid
the dark green leaves to bloom in May. Our
plants descend from material collected by Vladimir Vasak in the Greek
province of Viotia at 1700 m (5600') in the Parnassus Range. Height
of leaves about 30 cm (12"). Zone 6, perhaps colder.
Tuber. In $8.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Arum
alpinum subsp. besserianum. Zone 6, perhaps colder.
Tuber. $10.00 |
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Photographs © A.M.D. Hoog |
Arum concinnatum Our plants descend from material collected in
2001 by Antoine Hoog in Crete's Iraklion province, in the Dikti Mountains
near the hamlet of Kato Simi, at 800 m (2600'). The plants were growing in
deep shade provided by Platanus orientalis. The leaves of
this plant are plain dark green; the tuber horizontal.
The flower color varies, but darkens with ripeness. After observing
this plant for several years, Antoine suggests that it might be a natural
hybrid. Height of foliage about 60 cm (24"). Zone 6, perhaps
colder.
Tuber. $8.00 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward
Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Arum concinnatum
x cyrenaicum. This beautiful arum's
vigor and other traits reflect its hybrid ancestry. We have offered it
before as Arum aff. concinnatum; the current name is from
Peter Boyce. The leaves, strewn with confetti-like black blotches, unfurl in
December-January with us, heralding the snowdrops. They take freeze-thaw-freeze
with aplomb, as shown in our lower picture. The ethereal-looking "flower," with
its rose-tinged interior, blooms in June. This plant is much hardier than
the mainly Libyan A. cyrenaicum. The tuber is horizontal. Spathe height to
40 cm (16"). Zone 6, perhaps colder.
Tuber. $8.00 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
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| Arum creticum Boissier. & Heldreich. Native to the E Mediterranean, where it blooms in April-May. Our plants descend from material collected on the Greek island of Karpathos in 1953. "Flower" height 25-35 cm (10-14"). Fragrant. Prefers sun and deep, somewhat alkaline soil. To our amazement this has survived being frozen solid in a pot, but we don't recommend that treatment. We treasure our plants in a cool greenhouse, in a very open mix that includes fragments of oyster shell. In summer they are dry and dormant. We water them again in November. After Christmas, just when we wonder whether they have survived our neglect, they emerge as strong as ever, with pups. Zone 6. | |||
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Arum
cyrenaicum Hruby. This vigorous clone descends from plants
collected on Crete. In March-April, its broad spathe unfurls to reveal its
rosy purple lining and a deep purple spadix. Spectacular spikes of berries
follow (illustrated at the top of this page). Height 35-45 cm (13.5-17.5"). Zone
6, perhaps colder.
Tuber. $14.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Arum dioscoridis
Sibth. & Sm. var. syriacum. Our plants descend from material
collected on Cyprus by Franz
Speta.
Zone 6, perhaps colder.
Tuber. $10.00
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| Arum dioscoridis
Sibth. & Sm. var. dioscoridis. This
is a particularly vigorous clone. It blooms in June and is similar in
appearance to the plant below, but the spots remain distinct to the bottom
of the spathe, instead of merging. Our tubers descend from material
collected on Cyprus by Franz
Speta. Height 30-40 cm (12-16").
Zone 6, perhaps colder.
Tuber. $10.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Arum
dioscoridis
Sibth. & Sm.
var. dioscoridis. Indeed spectacular when it blooms in
June, this selection used to be known as Arum dioscoridis var.
spectabile (Schott) Engler. The spathe is purple-black at the
base, grading with purple-black spots to unspotted "summer
khaki" at the top. The leaves are unspotted. Native to the Middle East. Our
plants descend from seeds collected by Jim Archibald in Turkey's Mersin
Province in 1988.
Height 25-35 cm (10-14"). Zone 6, perhaps colder.
Tuber. $16.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Arum dioscoridis
Sibth. & Sm.
var. dioscoridis.
Horticulturally
distinct, this beauty used sometimes to be called Arum
dioscoridis var. liepoldtii (Schott) Engler. Zone 6,
perhaps colder.
Tuber. $14.00 |
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| Arum dioscoridis Sibth. & Sm. var. liepoldtii (Schott) Engler. | |||
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Arum dioscoridis
Sibth. & Sm. var. dioscoridis. This form has sometimes
been called var. philistaeum. Zone 6, perhaps
colder.
Tuber. $16.00
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| Arum dioscoridis Sibth. & Sm. var. spectabile (Schott) Engler. | |||
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Arum elongatum Steven.
The maroon spathe glows richly with a young sun behind it in April-May.
At flowering, the dark spadix is only 10-15 cm (4-6") tall;
it grows to 30-40 cm (12-16") as the berries ripen.
The flowers are foetid (a
"come-hither" for pollinator flies) only the day they open. Native to a
100-km (60-mile) belt around the Black Sea. Our plants descend from material
collected by Reinhard Suckow in the Crimea, near Massandra (Yalta), in 1987.Zone
6, perhaps colder.
Tuber. $8.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog
Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Arum
hygrophilum
Boissier. What offhand elegance! The spadix is dark purple and the hooded, Arisaema-like
spathe, bright green without and whitish green within, is edged in the
same dark purple. Up to 1 m (40") tall, it flowers in April-May. The leaves, unusually,
are arrow-shaped; they rise in November here and last all winter, handily
surviving our freeze-thaw-freeze. This species is native to
Morocco, Cyprus and the E Mediterranean. Our plants descend
from garden stock in New Zealand. Zone 6, possibly colder.
Tuber. $11.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Photographs © Paige Woodward |
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| Arum
nigrum Schott. Native to the Balkans. Our magnificent plants
descend from material collected in 1982 in cracks of Karst formation in
the Dalmatian coastal range, north of Knin, Croatia, an area since
devastated by war. The spathe, held below the dark green leaves, gleams
purple-black and is just 15-25 cm (6-10") tall, enclosing a pale
spadix. Blooms in May-June. Our typical plants look like the two
pictures on the left. The one on the right, which popped up in our garden, has also been
identified as nigrum by Peter Boyce. We don't have this color form
for sale but we thought you'd like to see it. The puffy things are
fallen Rhododendron petals. Zone 6, perhaps colder.
Tuber. $16.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Arum
orientale M. Bieberstein. Native in a wide swathe from
central and eastern Europe through the Balkans, northern Turkey, the
Caucasus and the Crimea. Zone 6, perhaps colder.
Tuber. $16.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog
Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Arum pictum L.
This is the
autumn-flowering Arum, native to the western Mediterranean. When
everything else in the garden is dying down, up it rises. Its maroon
spathe (backlit in our photograph) shelters a dark purple spadix. The
shiny, substantial leaves are dark green with green-white veins. Height to 25 cm (10"). Zone
6, perhaps colder.
Tuber. $16.00
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog. |
Arum purpureospathum P.C. Boyce.
A billowing, richly purple spathe, up to 30 cm (12")
long, unfurls in April-May above a celadon collar, revealing a spadix of the same
rich purple. This
plant relishes a dry summer, during which it will go dormant. Come
autumn rains, the spear-shaped, unspotted leaves will rise before winter. Our plants descend
from material collected in 1995 by Vladimír
Vašák
in Crete's Hania Province, at 600 m (2000'), near the village of Agios Ioannis.
Tuber. $21.00 |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Arum rupicola
Boissier. var. rupicola.
Our odorless "stretch" arum, native to the eastern
Mediterranean. One of these in a garden is a mere curiosity; plant several
so people will know you're serious! The exceptionally long
and slender spathe is maroon inside and green outside, with a red-tinged ruffle. The spadix is pale yellow. The dark green leaves, below the spathe,
are narrower than those of Arum elongatum. Our plants descend from
material collected in the Ala Dag range of central Turkey. They flower in
late spring. Height 40-60-cm (16-24"). Zone 6, perhaps
colder.
Tuber. $17.75
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Arum rupicola Boissier var. virescens
(Stapf) P.C. Boyce. These statuesque, torch-like plants hold their flower well above
their dark green leaves. They descend from material collected by Jānis
Rukšāns
in the Talysh
Mountains of S Azerbaijan, by the road near the city of Lerik, between low shrubs,
at an altitude of 600-800 m (1970-2625'). The spadix is brown, the spathe
cream outside with white inside. Increase is slow. Height 80-100 cm
(30-40").
Tuber. $15.50 |
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| This page was updated April 4, 2008. | |||
