Arisaema taiwanense
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Arisaema taiwanense• Click here to visit our Main Plant List page for current availability of this plant
• common name: jack-in-the-pulpit
• flowering season: mid spring to early summer
• height: 30 - 36 inches
• Light requirements: filtered light, or morning sun and afternoon shade
• Soil requirements: average to rich and well drained
• Water requirments: average water requirements, weekly deep watering is recommended to keep it from going dormant before summer's end
• Growth habit: a slowly expanding colony
• How to propagate: divide in mid spring
• Leaf type: leaves divided into three large leaflets
• Ways to use it: grows well with other flowering perennials in the garden; in time its grows into a large group
• Special characteristics: dark red, almost black, hooded flowers have a long, thin tail trailing down off the front of the flower
• Other points of interests: one of the easiest of jack-in-the-pulpits to grow
Native to semi-tropical Taiwan, this unusual plant reaches 30 to 36 inches in height and is a member of the aroid family, Araceae. Its flowers open in mid spring before the leaves unfurl. Unfurl is s good word to use because the leaves are large and take some time to fully open. A leaf has as many as a dozen long pointed leaflets radiating from a centerpoint where they all attach to the leafstem. It is a dramatic event to watch this flower open over several days. The flower is a very dark purple-black hood with a long extended tip emerging from the front, enclosing within a white nobbin called a spadix. When pollinated the spadix turns later in summer into a larger head of red fruit, so heavy that it tips to the ground. It survives outdoors in USDA Zones 6b to 9a.