What is this Plant?

Discussion in 'Plants: Identification' started by Taylor Sofie, Sep 22, 2009.

  1. Taylor Sofie

    Taylor Sofie Member

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    What is this plant? Its been around for a while. I keep pulling it out. But this is the first time its flowered.
     

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  2. togata57

    togata57 Generous Contributor 10 Years

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    Wow! Why pull it out?! It's gorgeous! What a color!---Well, you haven't seen the flower till now, so I understand.

    My first impulse is to say some kinda arum lily: I am sure that this wild guess will be shot down quickly by our array of expert plant folks here at the Forum.

    By the way, welcome! And your flower is beautiful. Am anxious to discover its identity---would love to have one (or more) of my own!
    Does it have a bulb?
     
  3. Silver surfer

    Silver surfer Generous Contributor 10 Years

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  4. Taylor Sofie

    Taylor Sofie Member

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    Thankyou for the option that it may be a Dranunculus Vulgaris. Although, i am still not sure, while they look quite similar, the petal on the Dragon Arum is ruffled around the edges of the flower as to the one on my flower.
    The leaves of my flower are quite thin and also quite soft. They have a tendancy to droop in the hot weather easily. Yes, the flower does have a bulb, although it is the size of a chick pea.
    I measured the flower and plant Just then and these are the rusults i have found:
    the leaves stand 17cm out of the ground.
    the leaves are 7cm wide.
    the stem of the flower is 2cm long, and comes straight out of the ground.
    it's 6cm wide at the widest part of the flower.
    the flower is 17cm long.
    The Spear like middle of the flower is also 17cm long.
    There are 3 other small plants that have come up, and appear to grow in a row, 30cm appart. Even though when they are dug up there appears to be no connection.
     
  5. Silver surfer

    Silver surfer Generous Contributor 10 Years

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    I have just had a look at our pics .You can see that the leaves emerge first, grow to full size, only then, much latter does it produce the spathe. ( Pictures carry the dates)
    I believe that by removing all the leaves as soon as you see them, that you have so weakened the plant, that it is not allowed to grow or perform to its full potential. I happen to love it for the leaves.
    You must decide whether you like it or not. If you like it, stop pulling of the leaves and allow it to bulk up.
     

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  6. lord andrew barham

    lord andrew barham Member VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society

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    I'm guessing it's Arum purpureospathum, based on its general appearance. Leaves look similar to other European species of Arum, such as A maculata or A. italica. Its purple spathe and spadix suggest purpureospathum. Wrong leaves fo Dracunculus vulgaris. I would try to cultivate this plant, rather than pulling it up. I have been trying to get seeds or bulbs for it for sometime, so far, thanks probably to Covid 19, without success.
     
  7. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    For me this is absolutely Dracunculus, including the leaves - it is a plant I have seen in person many times.
     
  8. lord andrew barham

    lord andrew barham Member VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society

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    I might add, that it is classified as rare by Plant World Seeds. Apparently, it was only discovered in 1984 on Crete.
     
  9. lord andrew barham

    lord andrew barham Member VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society

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    You may be right. I looked more closely at the picture and it really is hard to say what the leaves actually look like. There appear, right by the flower, leaves that look distinctly like an Arum: kind of arrowhead shaped. However, there are what appear to be much larger, compound-looking (but not quite sure) leaves developing (but not fully expanded) as well. It would help to know what the leaves actually do look like. Also, if the plant has an unpleasant aroma, then it almost certainly is Dracunculus; however, if they don't have a noticeably unpleasant aroid smell, then A. purpureospathum is suggested. The green, bulb-like structure at the base of the spathe suggests A. purpureospathum, rather than A. palaestinum.
     
  10. Silver surfer

    Silver surfer Generous Contributor 10 Years

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    As I last posted on this thread in Sept 2009 with pics and got no response from Taylor Sofie, then I doubt in May 2020 more info/new pics of leaves will be forthcoming!
    Especially as this was her first and last thread.

    Quote...."I might add, that it is classified as rare by Plant World Seeds. Apparently, it was only discovered in 1984 on Crete."

    Be rather amazing if a really rare Arum purpureospathum, turned up in a garden in Brisbane Australia just 20 years later.
    Bearing in mind she was weeding it out for a while.
     
  11. lord andrew barham

    lord andrew barham Member VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society

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    People have been selling the seeds for a while in the UK. I think one can even buy the bulbs and growing plants, but you do have a point.
     
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  12. Gwen Miller

    Gwen Miller Active Member

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    Here's Dracunculus vulgaris. It has thrived since being moved to its current location under a deciduous tree about 6 years ago. There were about a dozen blooms last year - - very glad they're not close to the house. They do smell awful. The plants grow tall enough that I needed a step ladder to try to take a picture looking down on them, probably about 6'. Prior to the current location it was in full sun and bloomed modestly from time to time. The blossoms now are enormous. It self -seeds very successfully; my planting is becoming a grove, and I'm ready to give some away after bloom time this year. They die down completely fairly quickly after flowering, with each bloom generating a club of large bright orange seeds.
    Let me know if you'd like some of the smaller bulbs - I'm in North Vancouver. I'm guessing they'll need another year or two to bloom. I'd be happy to save seed clusters too, if anyone wants to get a grove going.,
     

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  13. Silver surfer

    Silver surfer Generous Contributor 10 Years

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    I wait for someone to correct me .....
    but to be as enormous as that surely that is not Dracunculus vulgaris but Amorphophallus konjac.

    Here Dracunculus vulgaris typically grows to 3' tall.
    Markings on leaves look right for Dracunculus vulgaris.
    I am now confused...how come they grow so tall in Vancouver?


    Google &tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjvp6K7j9HpAhXE1eAKHWSgD8IQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=amorphophallus+&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgBMgIIKTICCCkyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCABQhwtYsR5gvS1oAHAAeACAAekBiAGyCJIBBTIuNS4xmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWc&sclient=img&ei=oNTMXu_XCMSrgwfkwL6QDA&bih=938&biw=1903&client=firefox-b-d&hl=en-US
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2020
  14. Gwen Miller

    Gwen Miller Active Member

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    Hi Silver surfer,
    No, mine isn't A. konjac. I had one of them 20-odd years ago, though mine never bloomed. A. Konjac has a distinctive foliage and form.

    While it seemed unusual that Taylor Sophie's spadix is leaning away from the spathe, the flower may be aged and getting floppy. I think the foliage has collapsed and what we're seeing here are the leaves of some other plant in the shade garden. A screenshot attached shows D. vulgaris at that stage.

    By the way, I love your well-labelled garden!
     

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  15. Gwen Miller

    Gwen Miller Active Member

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    I forgot to post my reply last night. Mine may grow this large due to low light - it may be stretching, (although they don't lean.) They're below a lacy but dense Pseudoacacia, and sheltered from morning sun by a fence on the east. Some furled Dracunculus buds are peeking out behind the birdbath at about the 1 o'clock position in this pic. It's moist in the spring, dryer in summer, which is good for the bulbs. And while I'm sure it's long since totally gone, there was an in-ground compost pit right in that area when I bought the house 24 years ago. I phased it out about 20 years ago.
     

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  16. lord andrew barham

    lord andrew barham Member VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society

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    I bought 20 bulbs of D vulgaris online, but none have so far come up. I suspect it has been too cool and wet for them, and they may have rotted in the gourd, though I did change out some of the soil and replaced it with sand to improve drainage. If you have bulbs and offsets available, I would be very interested in getting some. I'm in Coquitlam on Blue Mountain. Like you, I am also planning on experimenting with Amorphophalus konjac. Hope I can get mine to flower if the bulbs ever get here! (I have been waiting for some seeds of Arum purpureospathum since early March, for example.)
     
  17. lord andrew barham

    lord andrew barham Member VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society

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    Is that the actual size of the flowers, or did you somehow take the picture to make them look as big as that? They may be a bit too large for the rockery I'm building, lol.
     
  18. Gwen Miller

    Gwen Miller Active Member

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    Hi, Lord Andrew,
    I would be delighted to send a good batch your way! I'm a big fan of immediate gratification and would love to deliver them immediately, but the greenery doesn't fare too well after being dug up. Best that they percolate in my garden until they senesce. I'll diarize to get in touch with you then. (Unless you'd like to stop by to see my growing conditions a week or two from now.) You're right - - the camera does seem to foreshorten the image a bit, but 12 years ago the flower spanned the length of my arm from fingertip to shoulder. It's pretty impressive! But that's a mature bulb - your younger ones would be more demure. Let me know if you want to stop by when they're in bloom.
     
  19. lord andrew barham

    lord andrew barham Member VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society

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    I would love to! I'm not only curious to see this impressive flower, but also to smell it, as I hear it can be kind of strong! But then, so is Skunk Cabbage, and I don't particularly mind the smell of that one. (I have some I'm growing in pots. It's interesting, because it's a local native species that everyone is familiar with, no one values it, but I find a big swath of Lysichiton americanum in bloom is a beautiful sight. The plant is cultivated in a few big gardens in England, where it can grow to its full, impressive height with leaves more than six feet long, because there are no bears around to eat them!)
     
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  20. lord andrew barham

    lord andrew barham Member VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society

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    By the way, I'm curious to know how long it takes to come up once the bulbs have been sown. I stuck 20 in the garden several weeks ago, and so far, unless the weird looking liliaceous plants that are coming up (I also stuck in 20 lily bulbs because Home Depot had them on for half price last week) are Dracs. (The leaves look more liliaceous than aroid; however the growth habit is definitely aroid.)
     
  21. Gwen Miller

    Gwen Miller Active Member

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    Wonderful! I'll message you when they're blooming. From the dates on older photos, it's around the first week of June. They're budding now. I'll try to get some photos of baby leaves for you. They look a bit like baby spinach to me.

    The (ahem) fragrance? Like you, I've become very fond of skunk cabbage, but Dracunculus is in a whole other ballpark.

    I bought mine in a pot, then didn't get around to planting it, leaving it in the kitchen on a heat register for a couple of weeks. I'd forgotten about it by the time I went away for a long weekend. I can still remember my stunned confusion opening the door on my return home. The house reeked of rotting garbage. Fortunately, the scent settles down after a few days. It's not too much of a problem, because you'll find you don't work near it anyway. ; )
     
  22. Gwen Miller

    Gwen Miller Active Member

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    I think the new leaves from bulblets look a bit like spinach. One example is attached (There should be lots, but I hoed them out a few weeks ago. The ones I'll dig for you are more like the ones in the second shot.
     

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  23. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    At first they smell of dead rats but this stops well before the flowers are spent, making it possible to use them cut.
     
  24. lord andrew barham

    lord andrew barham Member VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society

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    Hmm doesn't look like the unknown aroids coming up where I planted Dracunculus. Leave originally looked liliaceous but are starting to look more like the leaves of narrow-leaved plantain rather than spinach. So far, there are fourteen of them, which is far more than the number of Zantedeschias (finally I got the spelling correct) I planted last week. Wonder if the seller sent me some other kind of aroid … I am getting several species of Arum, including one called Arum purpureospathum, but only four seeds per order and I bought the last two. Coming from Israel. (She also offered Arum creticum, but four seeds for $10 American plus shipping seems a trifle steep.) Trying to get A. palaestinum, and have some other European species on their way. Just received an order from Rare and Exotic Seeds which includes seeds of Giant Echium. I grew this when I was living in Guernsey. It's a biannual, and in its second year, it can produce a flower shoot almost ten feet tall! If I succeed with this one, or if enough of the seeds germinate that I bought, you're welcome to have either seeds or plants. It is only frost hardy to -5º C though. (I shall probably overwinter mine indoors and plant them out next Spring.)
     
  25. lord andrew barham

    lord andrew barham Member VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society

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    Be reminiscent of having a cat again. He was real little hunter and we used to find rat carcasses quite frequently. Then he got taken out by a local lynx.
     

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