Our common, or large, jack-in-the-pulpit bears flowers that come in many colors: green, brown; often with stripes. However, we also have a subspecies in our area (Arisaema dracontium) that looks different. The dracontium, which is less common, has better camouflage and is called the green dragon.
The more common subspecies, Arisaema triphyllum, which I wrote about last week, has several color forms you can easily find, especially if you peek under the hood of the pulpit, or spathe. You’ll also see that the lip of the pulpit’s tube is wide at the top, flaring out like a trumpet. There is an all green, flowered form called viride that has pale stripes, and a dark-striped form called zebrinus, which can be quite striking in appearance. Another, called forma atrorubens, has flowers that are reddish-brown on the top of the pulpit hood.
Two other subspecies that live in the Mid-Atlantic area are dwarf jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum ssp. pusilum), and Stewardson’s jack-in-the-pulpit (also called northern jack-in-the-pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum ssp. stewardsonii). These two subspecies are smaller than the common ones and bloom a week or two later. They also prefer wetter habitats.
Dwarf jack-in-the-pulpit flowers have a skinny, cylindrical jack, or spadix, and almost no trumpetlike flare to their spathe tubes. These can be all green or have a dark jack and a solid black/purple underside to the hood. Around here, I usually find it growing in wet, mucky seeps in the woods, often among skunk cabbages.
Stewardson’s jack-in-the-pulpit is more of a northern plant. It has very bold, raised white ribs running up the back of the spathe and over the top of the hood. Like the corrugations in cardboard, they make the hood rather inflexible and have little trumpetlike flare to their flower’s tube. This subspecies likes more boggy, acidic soils than the others and is found mostly north and west of Berks County. We haven’t been able to keep this one happy in our garden even though we try to re-create its cool and moist northern habitat.
Some botanists think these three subspecies should be split into three separate species, and field research has supported this conclusion. Unfortunately they are easier to identify when they are alive versus when they have been pressed flat and glued onto paper, which is the condition they are in when botanists study and compare them.
One of the reasons that the common ssp. triphyllum plants are bigger than the other two subspecies is because their cells have twice as many chromosomes. Called polyploidy, this condition results from a doubling of the chromosomes when an ancestor went from having the normal number for this species (28), and accidentally produced an offspring with 56 chromosomes (28 from each parent), called a tetraploid.
The mismatch in chromosome number is one of the reasons why hybrid offspring between the large jack-in-the-pulpit and the two smaller subspecies are uncommon. These hybrid offspring have reduced reproductive potential, or are completely sterile.
The green dragon subspecies’s flowers aren’t pulpitlike, and the jack is a yellow spike that curls from under the hood, which doesn’t open wide. These curious green flowers are down below the leaves, next to the leaf stem, and are hard to see unless you push the leaves aside. Green dragons usually have nine to 15 narrow leaflets per leaf, not the three the common species. The narrow leaflets give it a tropical appearance, sort of like a tiny palm tree.
Look for them in swampy areas and wet seeps, but they can be rather inconspicuous, and I’m sure I overlook some.
Jack-in-the-pulpit seeds are inside tightly clustered red berries. Presumably, they are eaten by birds, who must not be bothered by the strong peppery, burning taste they share with the roots and leaves. I admire jack-in-the-pulpits for their unique appearance, and we grow quite a few forms in our garden. Most are happy in our shady woodland area.
I have been so enamored of them that I have also taken to growing some of their cousins from China and Japan, too. Some of them are even stranger looking. Next week I will share my experiences with some of the hardier Asian jack-in-the-pulpits with you.
Mike Slater is president of the Baird Ornithological Club and a member of the Mengel Natural History Society of Berks County and the Muhlenberg Botanic Society of Lancaster. He lives in Brecknock Township. Reach him at paplantings@gmail.com.
