what is this?

[boxofdelights]

An arum, maybe? It's growing in a community garden plot in Seattle.

Comments

[kaberett]

I think so, yes. Certainly I looked at it and went "oh, THAT thing", so.

[pameladean]

That looks like jack-in-the-pulpit, its leaves dying back and its berries forming. The berries will turn red if that's really what it is.

P.

[kaberett]

I did not know that these were the same thing, in at least some contexts! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arum_maculatum

[pameladean]

I didn't either! Around here, calla lilies are sometimes called arum lilies, and I knew it wasn't that. I did not know that callas are not actually true arums, they just resemble most of the family.

Naming is strange.

P.

[boxofdelights]

Thanks! Even more confusing than different names for the same thing is when they use the same name for different things. First time I saw a European kestrel -- I know you guys had the language first, but that is not a kestrel! Kestrels are tiny!

[sam_t]

I'm fairly happy with 'kestrel' meaning 'whatever member of the kestrel family is locally common', but I think we (that is, the UK) are right about robins (they're not a sort of thrush, however red its breast is!) and you're right about goldfinches. Ours are attractive birds, but they're just not gold enough.

[boxofdelights]

Thanks!

[philomytha]

That's lords-and-ladies. Which I think has a lot of other names too. I didn't know it grew in the USA, it's fairly common in hedges here.

[boxofdelights]

Thanks!

[kate_schaefer]

Jack-in-the-pulpit, and if you (or the gardener) don't want it to take over all available space, better rip out at least one more than wanted as soon as the attractive red berries start getting soft. It reproduces both by seed and by bulb offshoot.

I kinda like them, but I have far more of them in my yard than I want, thanks to not realizing right away that they're an attractive thug. I should have realized that any plant that just volunteers is a thug.

[boxofdelights]

Very true! Thanks, I have passed your ID and your warning on to the gardener.